Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali slammed Sufiyan Muqeem over an on-field exchange with Abhishek Sharma during the India vs Pakistan clash in the ACC Men’s T20 Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2024. India kicked off their campaign in style as they defeated their archrivals by 7 runs to open their account.
The ACC Men’s T20 Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2024 is being held in Oman and India took on Pakistan at Al Amerat on Saturday. Batting first the Men In Blue posted 183 runs on the board riding on some heavy batting from Tilak Varma, Prabhsimran SIngh and Abhishek. Pakistan came close but the Indian bowlers maitained their composure to guide themselves to a close fought victory over their rivals.
The incident occured when Abhishek was dismissed by spinner Sufiyan Muqeem and the latter was seen giving a ”silence gesture” towards the Indian opener which led to a heated exchange between the two on the field. Umpires Chamara de Zoysa and Rahul Asher had to intervene to cool off the two players.
Basit Ali took to his YouTube channel to remind the young player how to behave on the field during a cricket match.
He said, “The cricket was top-class, but one thing that really upset me was the incident involving Sufiyan Muqeem and Abhishek Sharma. If I were sitting in the dugout or the team manager, I would have told Sufiyan, ‘Son, pick up your things and go back.’ You haven’t even played proper cricket for Pakistan yet, and you’re already using abusive language. What kind of behaviour is this?”
“You’re hurling abuses—did you take a hat-trick or something? (Aap gaaliyan de rahe hai, kya aapne hat-trick leliya?) You’re not at that level yet. The management needs to teach young players how to respect the opposition.”
Pakistan are the defending Emerging Asia Cup champions having defeated India in the final by 128 runs last year in Colombo.