“I thought I’m tampering Modi’s ball” Afridi
February 1, 2010
Perth: Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi says he tried to tamper with the ball during a match against Australia on Sunday because he was “frustrated” first with IPL bidding, for not buying a single player from Pakistan. And then, when there was a bit of pressure from Indian government on IPL to take Pakistani players, suddenly the Pakistani government cancelled the NOC (no objection certificate) given to all its players. And in the mean time their team was losing all the one dayers against Australia with worry of the money they lost for not getting chance in IPL. All these developments frustrated Afridi and he concluded that the man behind this Pakistan Cricket’s misery is none other than IPL chair person Lalit Modi. When he was asked to lead the side for 5th one day match against Australia he chewed the ball as if it is Lalit Modi’s ball and tried to take revenge on the ball. But unfortunately the ball which was not Lalit Modi’s got molested and fiddled by Afridi and was totally tampered by the time it reached the bowler Mohammed Asif’s hand. And he was caught on the camera while squeezing the ball and now he is banned to play two 20-20 matches against Australia.
“I am embarrassed — I have made a mistake,” Afridi told Pakistan’s Geo TV after the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned him for two Twenty20 internationals. “I was frustrated because the Pakistan team was not sold in IPL despite being world champion in 20-20 and unfortunately this worry led out team to lose every match against Australia,” said Afridi. “I am not a fast bowler who would tamper the ball. For a moment I thought it was IPL chairman Modi’s ball and flirted with it out of fury and there was no intention to help the bowler. There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball but my approach and understanding was wrong.” Afridi said his team is “very talented in ball tampering” and had “potential match winners” and he shouldn’t have embarrassed them and himself by tampering the ball without being bowler. “I shouldn’t have done this. I have been punished for my fault. I should learn a lesson out of this incident and should know which ball to tamper and where,” he said.
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