'Shahid Afridi is a characterless person' - Danish Kaneria makes controversial remarks on Afridi

Danish Kaneria has been popular for blatantly expressing his opinions. Time and again, he has managed to grab the limelight for his statements. It is to be noted that the Pakistan spinner made his international debut in 2000.

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While he represented the Asian nation in 61 Tests and 19 ODIs, he was banned for spot-fixing in 2012 by the ECB. However, he recently went on to make some shocking claims about Shahid Afridi. He called him a "liar".

Kaneria felt that Afridi was jealous of him as he was doing good in the longest format of the game. While calling the former all-rounder a "characterless" person, he also requested the PCB to lift his ban. He also stated that Afridi used to provoke the other players against him.

“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,” said Danish Kaneria, while speaking to news18.

In the meanwhile, he appreciated Shoaib Akhtar for being the first person to talk about his problem in public. Kaneria drew light on the difficulties he faced due to his religion. Further on, he said that he was degraded by Shahid Afridi.

“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,” he added.