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Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri strongly criticised ex-Pakistani cricketer Hasan Raza for making unsubstantiated remarks about the Indian bowlers tampering with cricket balls during the ODI World Cup 2023 campaign.
A controversy arose during the ongoing tournament when Hasan Raza alleged that the Indian pacers were receiving specially treated cricket balls from either the International Cricket Council (ICC) or the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Raza claimed that these balls were manipulated to help the bowlers' ability and to achieve swing and seam, even on pitches typically favourable for batting.
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On the Club Prairie Fire podcast with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan, Shastri dismissed Raza's statements as baseless and sarcastically suggested that Raza might soon claim that players like Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav were also given special 'technology' to aid them in matches.
"Good job. Let him stay there. What he is talking about is a whole load of nonsense. Next, he will come and say when Jadeja bowls, it goes at certain revolutions, and when Kuldeep comes on the other side, there's another piece of technology on the other side of the ball that makes it go the other way. It's all rubbish," said Shastri.
Raza's comments followed India's impressive 302-run victory against Sri Lanka, where bowlers Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj delivered outstanding performances. Shami's five-wicket haul made him India's all-time highest wicket-taker in ODI World Cups, surpassing former bowlers Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath.
However, the former Pakistan cricketer's allegations faced scepticism and criticism, notably from former pace legend Wasim Akram, one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. Akram dismissed Raza's claims as baseless and explained the standard procedure for selecting cricket balls before a match.
Raza continued to make further allegations, suggesting India was manipulating the Decision Review System (DRS) technology.
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