Despite facing criticism for his earlier remarks that ICC or the BCCI is giving ‘different balls’ to the Indian bowlers, former Pakistani cricketer Hasan Raza has stroked another bizarre controversy. While giving his ‘expert opinion’ on India’s triumph against South Africa, Raza claimed that India is manipulating the Decision Review System (DRS) in the ongoing ‘Home’ edition of the World Cup. Hasan Raza alleged that DRS is manipulated to favour India during their home World Cup.
Raza raised suspicion over the DRS call which was taken on Jadeja’s bowling against Rassie van der Dussen. The on-field umpire had turned down the appeal after which India asked for a review and check whether the in-form South African batsman van der Dussen was out leg before wicket or not.
On the DRS call, the replay projected that the ball would have gone on to hit the top of the middle and leg stump and the on-field umpire’s call was overturned. However, former Pakistani batsman Hasan Raza raised questions over this routine DRS call.
According to the former Pakistani cricketer, how can a ball spin from the leg stump to hit the middle stump, that’s not possible. Raza further lamented that DRS is being manipulated to favour India, which according to him should be checked.
On a Pakistani news channel, Hasan Raza said, “Jadeja picked up five wickets and finished with career-best figures. We were talking about technology where DRS was being taken. Van der Dussen was the batter and the ball was hitting the middle stump after pitching on leg stump. How is that possible?”
“The impact was in line, but the ball was headed towards the leg stump. Like everyone else, I am just sharing my opinion. I am saying that such things should be checked. DRS is being manipulated and that is clearly visible,” Hasan Raza added.
Raza further complained that this was not the first issue with DRS. Earlier as well, there were two to three DRS calls that had gone in favour of India, (however), I will talk about Pakistan here, he added.
Hasan Raza then talked about the South Africa and Pakistan match at the Chepauk where Tabraiz Shamsi was given not out on Haris Rauf’s delivery when the match was hanging in the balance. Raza then went on to seek an apology from the ICC for the outcome of the DRS.
He said, “It was not the first time. The review in the match between Pakistan and South Africa and the last wicket partnership. They did not even apologise. Home conditions and home advantages come into play.”
While admitting that there was no tampering with the ball, Raza did cast aspersions on the ‘weight’ of the ball. He said that if the ball is light then it will spin, hinting that some official should check the weight of the ball after every over especially at transition. He speculated that fast bowlers could be given different balls that seam and swing a lot while spinners could be given lighter balls than spin a lot.
Earlier, on Thursday (2nd November), Raza had claimed that Indian bowlers were getting some different balls from ICC or BCCI. On a Pakistani news channel, the former Pakistani cricketer said that ICC or BCCI is providing some special balls only to Indian bowlers due to which Indian bowlers are getting ‘swing’ even on batting pitches. Hasan Raza also asserted that there should be an ‘inspection’ of balls provided by ICC.
However, he soon was at the receiving end of criticism and trolling over his bizarre claim that ICC is giving “different and suspicious” balls to Indian bowlers in World Cup 2023. Reacting to Hasan Raza’s baseless and senseless assertion, former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram lambasted Hasan Raza saying that he too wants to try the same stuff these people (Hasan Raza) are smoking. He further slammed Hasan Raza by saying that if Raza wants to get humiliated, he should not do the same to Pakistan in front of the entire world.
Slamming the ‘rigging’ allegation, Akram asserted that there is no device in the ball and that it cannot be swung with a device inserted in it.
Akram said, “There is no device in the ball. You can’t swing the ball with a device. For argument’s sake, if you are trying to swing the ball we can say one is a heavy side, while the other is a light side, but you can’t swing the ball with a device.”