‘I've Never Experienced Racism in England Cricket’: Moeen Ali

|| India Correspondent ||

Moeen Ali has recently said that he has not experienced any racism in English cricket following a welter of allegations. On Tuesday, former international umpire John Holder and aspiring official Ismail Dawood accused the England and Wales Cricket Board about racism where they both felt that non-white candidates have been unfairly restricted from becoming match officials.

However, not only this but Azeem Rafiq has also said that he has suffered racial discrimination while playing for Yorkshire. On the other hand, England all-rounder Moeen Ali has also alleged racial abuse by an unnamed Australia player during a Test match in 2015. But he also said that he had not faced any prejudice in English cricket so far.

"I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I have never experienced anything like that," he told reporters from Cape Town on Wednesday prior to England's white-ball series against South Africa. "I always felt that if you were scoring runs or taking wickets you'll play. I have now been playing for England for six years and always felt at home, always felt like one of the guys.”

"I am sure there are other guys who say they have and I am sure things have and will be done about it. The review is being done and the ECB are improving in all these aspects of the game. No one is perfect, but going forward, I think a lot will be done to get all these things right," he again shared.

Meanwhile, Moeen Ali, who has appeared in 200 international games so far, has lost his place in the squad during last year's Ashes but he hoped to become regular again as he knows he doesn’t have much time left in terms of age and fitness too.

"It's frustrating for myself and it's more of a mental thing. I've had enough of a break from Test cricket... There's an opportunity there to be one of the greatest sides ever and be part of that. That's something I want to do. I think I was hungrier when I was younger, when you are trying to play Test cricket (for the first time). I think everyone is hungrier then. I guess a year-and-a-half ago I had definitely lost a lot of that hunger but over the last six months I feel like it is coming back. I want to play Test cricket and play as much as I can," he concluded.