Saeed Ajmal: “I can say with conviction that no Pakistan player indulged in any activity that led to any match being lost just so that Younis Khan could be removed as captain”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal has rubbished pace bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan’s claims that some of the national players deliberately underperformed.

Rana claimed that many Pakistan players didn’t give their best during the ODI series against New Zealand in the UAE in 2009 since they were unhappy with Younis Khan’s captaincy.

All three ODIs were held in Abu Dhabi and Pakistan went 1-0 up after winning the first match by 138 runs. However, they proceeded to lose the next two games by 64 runs and seven runs respectively, which gave New Zealand a 2-1 series win.

However, Ajmal dismissed Rana’s allegation and said that “no such thing happened”.

“I can say with conviction that no Pakistan player indulged in any activity that led to any match being lost just so that Younis Khan could be removed as captain. I played in those games and I know that no such thing happened as we all played to win the game,” Ajmal told PakPassion.

“I am not sure why Rana Naved feels that there was some conspiracy against Younis Khan. He was an aggressive captain who played with that mindset and in the previous tour of South Africa, we had requested the PCB to advise him to have a better attitude with his team-mates.

“But, to say that a match was deliberately lost to remove Younis Khan as captain simply did not happen. Younis Khan is a great man who has performed really well for Pakistan. I respect him and believe we as players would never dream of undermining his captaincy by any means.”

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