'He was a liar, and manipulator because he’s a characterless person'- Danish Kaneria lashes out at Shahid Afridi

Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria has made a huge statement about former team captain Shahid Afridi. The leg-spinner has revealed that Afridi did not let him be a part of the ODI squad and treated him unfairly due to his religion. Kaneria played 61 Tests and 18 One-Day Internationals for Pakistan. He is still the highest wickettaker for Pakistan in Tests among the spinners. He got 261 Test wickets and 15 ODI wickets. Kaneria's career was doomed after he was banned from all forms of cricket by the ECB in 2012 following a spot-fixing case.

Meanwhile, the 41-year old revealed that Shoaib Akhtar was the only player who raised his voice for Kaneria. "Shoaib Akhtar was the first person to talk about my problem in public. Hats off to him for saying it (how I was mistreated in the team because of being a Hindu). However, he was later pressured by several authorities. He then stopped talking about it. But yes, it did happen to me. I was always degraded by Shahid Afridi. We used to play together for the same department, he used to keep me on the bench and didn’t let me play the one-day tournament," Kaneria said as quoted by news18.

Despite having issues in the team with Afridi, Kaneria said that he tried to keep his focus on the game. The former player also stated that Afridi provoked other players against him because he was jealous of his performance. Kaneria concluded by saying that he is proud that he played for Pakistan.

"He didn’t want me to be in the team. He was a liar, and manipulator because he’s a characterless person. However, my focus was only on cricket and I used to ignore all these tactics. Shahid Afridi was the only person who would go to other players and provoke them against me. I was performing well and he was jealous of me. I am proud that I played for Pakistan. I was grateful," he added.