Saqib Mahmood: Pace bowler says he was labelled 'terrorist' on social media

[Abdullah719]

Lancashire pace bowler Saqib Mahmood says he was called a "terrorist" after he missed the England Lions tour of India because he could not get a visa.

Uncapped Mahmood, 22, has been called up to England's Test and Twenty20 squads for New Zealand in November.

Unable to obtain a visa for the January tour because of his Pakistani heritage, he received abuse on social media.

"All of a sudden I was being called a terrorist and I had not done anything wrong," Mahmood told the BBC's Stumped.

"People thought I was plotting something when I was going on a cricket tour. I was getting called not a lot of nice things, hence why I tried to forget about it all."

With 21 wickets in Division Two, Mahmood is one of four players included in both England squads, alongside Joe Denly, Sam Curran and Matthew Parkinson.

On receiving the call, Mahmood said: "I knew the squad was being announced at two so all morning I was literally just staring at my phone waiting for it to ring.

"I ended up getting the call at twenty to two just as I thought the call was not coming. It was a great feeling - it was almost a too-good-to-be-true feeling."

He added his mind "went blank" when England selector Ed Smith gave him the news - so much so that he was unable to take anything else in.

"He told me I was in both squads and it was such a weird feeling," added Mahmood, whose heroes include former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee, former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar and England's leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson.

"At the end he asked me if I had any questions and I did not want to tell him that I had not heard a thing he said."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/49824779

 

[MenInG]

Not the first time this word has been used


===


WHEN Dean Jones uttered the words "the terrorist has got another wicket" from the back of a Colombo commentary box, he did not know his wisecrack about the South African cricketer and Muslim Hashim Amla would go live to air on South African TV.

Nor did the former Australian batsman take into account that his employer, the Dubai-based production company Ten Sports, is owned by a United Arab Emirates conglomerate, Bukhatir Investments Limited, whose chairman, Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, is a powerful player in the Islamic market and passionate cricket fan.

Yesterday, within hours of Jones's faux pas during what he thought was an ad break, it emerged he would not be working again for the world's biggest TV producer of cricket.

"We've terminated Dean Jones's freelance contract with immediate effect," said Ray Reed, the director of communications for Taj TV, whose channel Ten Sports is beamed into 50 million households. "He won't be employed by us again. We're a company that's owned by a United Arab Emirates citizen, we've got a diverse cross-section of nationalities and religions working for us, so as a company we have a zero-tolerance policy regarding such comments.

"We've condemned the statement in the strongest possible terms. It's an unfortunate situation … He made the comment when he felt it wasn't going out on air. It was during an ad break [in Sri Lanka and elsewhere on the subcontinent] but it was carried on the South African channel … Even off-air those comments aren't acceptable within our company and unfortunately he can't work for us any more."

However, Jones is still expecting to be allowed back into the commentary box for the Champions Trophy tournament in India in October, despite being sent home from Sri Lanka in disgrace.

The former Australian batsman was standing at the back of the commentary box and as Amla took a catch to dismiss the Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara in Colombo, he remarked: "The terrorist has got another wicket."

Jones arrived at Melbourne airport last night, saying his gaffe was a "stupid, ridiculous off-the-wall comment" that wasn't meant to go to air. "I got hold of Hashim Amla and … gave him my sincerest apologies, and he was gracious enough to accept it."

And not all is lost. Jones will still keep one job. The 3AW program director, Clark Forbes, said: "We wouldn't be changing our contractual arrangements on that basis."

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricke...ng-cricketer-a-terrorist-20060809-gdo4yk.html

 

[Birdman]

Dumb move my Indian authorities on this issue. I understand stringent scrutiny for people of Pakistani origin for a visa, but this guy was travelling with the English cricket team and the authorities, should have expedited his visa application. I don't get why would anyone call this guy a terrorist for failing to get Indian Visa? Stupid is as stupid does.

 

[topspin]

For all those BJP loyalists calling him a "terrorist", ought to take a look at their cult leader and his role during the Gujarat Massacre.

Sohail Tanvir was correct in citing the mindset of the Indian population.

 

[sweep_shot]

Feel bad for him.

All he can do is ignore. Twitter trolls are like animals; it is better not to engage with them.

 

[Rana]

I hope this guy crosses paths with India on the field and actually terrorises their batsman with his pace, bounce and swing. Would love to see how the trolls react to that.

He’s a great bowler and will do well InshaAllah

 

[Sir-fraz]

STICK to the TOPIC, dont need useless banter

 

[Ronaldo7]

Feel bad for him.

All he can do is ignore. Twitter trolls are like animals; it is better not to engage with them.

He should change his notification settings so he only gets notifications from the people he follows

 

[Kroll]

This is disgraceful. England should have boycotted the tour because in essence by turning up, they're effectively condoning this discrimination by the Indians.

In this era and going forward, England's cricket team is bound to have players of SC heritage including of Pakistani background. So is India now going to deploy a policy of rejecting visas for all players of Pakistani heritage?

This coming from the Indians, doesn't surprise me as they have shown us all to be immature and pathetic imbeciles. However, I am expecting better from England and to show more conviction in supporting their players.

 

[chacha kashmiri]

With players like hasan ali recently marrying Indians you would hope Indians would just grow up and stop being so immature and petulant

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Dumb move my Indian authorities on this issue. I understand stringent scrutiny for people of Pakistani origin for a visa, but this guy was travelling with the English cricket team and the authorities, should have expedited his visa application. I don't get why would anyone call this guy a terrorist for failing to get Indian Visa? Stupid is as stupid does.

Indians are toxic; a generalization which is becoming truer day by day. Their media/bollywood or whatever crap they watch is definition of toxicity

 

[Danyaalr01]

This is disgraceful. England should have boycotted the tour because in essence by turning up, they're effectively condoning this discrimination by the Indians.

In this era and going forward, England's cricket team is bound to have players of SC heritage including of Pakistani background. So is India now going to deploy a policy of rejecting visas for all players of Pakistani heritage?

This coming from the Indians, doesn't surprise me as they have shown us all to be immature and pathetic imbeciles. However, I am expecting better from England and to show more conviction in supporting their players.

I agree. If a player representing your country is not allowed to enter another country due to his/her ethnicity, then the tour should be boycotted. If Khwaja is not allowed to enter India, then Australia should cancel the tour, same goes for England and any other country with Pakistani players. I

t's unlikely that this will happen though, because the boards only care about money, and boycotting a tour to India would get them on the wrong side of the BCCI, which would harm them.