Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali expressed his disappointment over the heated on-field incident between Pakistan A’s Sufiyan Muqeem and India A’s Abhishek Sharma during the ACC Men’s T20 Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2024.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Basit criticized Muqeem’s behaviour and emphasized that young cricketers need to learn sportsmanship and respect the opponent.
“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?” Basit said.
“You’re hurling abuses, did you take a hat-trick or something? You’re not at that level yet. The management needs to teach young players how to respect the opposition,” Basit added.
The controversial moment occurred during a tense clash between India A and Pakistan A at Al Amerat. After Abhishek had gotten off to a fine start, scoring 35 runs off 22 deliveries, his innings would be brought to an end by Muqeem thanks to a sharp catch by Qasim Akram.
After the dismissal, Muqeem made a “silence gesture” toward Abhishek, which infuriated the Indian opener, leading to a heated exchange. Umpires Chamara de Zoysa and Rahul Asher had to step in to restore order.
The match ended up going down to the wire and ended with India A clinching a narrow 7-run victory. After scoring a great total of 183/8 in 20 overs, India would triumph by restricting their arch-rivals for 176/7.
