‘Lies’: Afridi responds to allegations of forcing Danish Kaneria to convert to Islam

Shahid Afridi has responded to the allegations of forcing former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria to convert to Islam. Talking exclusively to The Current, Shahid Afridi said he does not want to dignify such baseless allegations by responding to a man who has tarnished Pakistan’s name in the cricketing world. Kaneria was banned for life for spot-fixing after being found guilty of corruption.

“You can imagine what sort of a man is Kaneria. He has brought disrepute to Pakistan, our cricket team, his family and colleagues,” said Afridi.

Afridi added that he was quite young at the time mentioned by Kaneria and wasn’t too religious himself back then. “He is an attention-seeker. That’s the reason for his lies.”

Danish had accused Shahid Afridi of attempting to force him to convert to Islam. Kaneria said that Shahid Afridi “bullied” him and that the two were never friends during his tenure.

In an interview with an Indian TV channel, Kaneria accused Afridi of having a terrible attitude towards him, which hampered his chances of playing more international cricket. He went on to say that when Younis Khan was named captain of his departmental side, he finally got a chance to play regular first-class cricket. Kaneria said that he was fortunate that the rest of the squad was supportive of him and that no one else had a negative attitude towards him.