On Wednesday (15th November), Pakistani cricket fans and former cricketeres came up with a new conspiracy theory against India’s cricket team which has now reached the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Former Pakistani Test cricketer Sikandar Bakht said during a Pakistani TV show that India’s captain Rohit Sharma deliberately throws the coin far away during the toss to dupe the opposition captain. Many other Pakistani cricket fans have also tweeted and peddled this conspiracy theory.
Sikandar Bakht said in a Pakistani TV show on the ICC Cricket World Cup, “I want to ask a question. If we can show all the tosses so far. Whenever Rohit Sharma tosses the coin, he throws it far away. The captain of the other team does not go to the coin and check if the toss call is correctly assessed or not.” After this remark, the Pakistani TV channel showed a video clip of all the tosses wherein Rohit Sharma is seen tossing the coin.
The TV channel also showed the tosses between captains of other cricket teams to assert that these players do not throw the coin as far away as Rohit Sharma and that the result of the toss call is easily verifiable to the opposition captain standing nearby.
This is the latest controversy peddled by Pakistani cricketers and cricket fans to discredit the impressive performance of the Indian cricket team in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup. Earlier, many such conspiracy theories were invented by Pakistani cricket enthusiasts and former cricket players to set a narrative that things in the current edition of the Cricket World Cup are fixed or set in order to benefit the Indian cricket team.
Former cricketer Hasan Raza, while appearing on a Pakistani news channel, had said that ICC or BCCI is providing some special kind of balls only to Indian bowlers due to which Indian bowlers like Shami and Siraj are getting swings even on batting pitches. Hasan Raza also asserted that there should be an ‘inspection’ of balls provided by the ICC. He also alleged that decisions are being made in favour of India in the matter of DRS. 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 drugs these people (Hasan Raza) are smoking.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was also accused of forcing a last-minute change of pitch ahead of India’s semifinal against New Zealand at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. International Cricket Council (ICC) later replied to these claims and clarified that changes to the scheduled pitch are normal and were made at the venue curator’s request. Now, Pakistani cricket fans have come up with this new conspiracy theory against the Indian cricket team.