LONDON -England all-rounder Moeen Ali has said he was called “Osama” by anAustralia player during the 2015 Ashes series.
Ali´s allegation was made in his autobiography, an extract of which waspublished in Saturday´s edition of The Times newspaper.
Cricket Australia has announced it is launching an investigation, sayingthe comment was “unacceptable”.
Moeen, a practising Muslim, said he was on the receiving end of the slur, areference to terror leader Osama bin Laden, from an unnamed opponent duringhis Ashes debut against Australia in Cardiff three years ago — a matchwhere he scored 77 runs in the first innings and took five wickets.
“It was a great first Ashes Test in terms of my personal performance,however there was one incident which had distracted me,” wrote Moeen.
“An Australian player turned to me on the field and said, ´Take that,Osama´. I could not believe what I had heard. I remember going really red.I have never been so angry on a cricket field,” added the 31-year-oldWorcestershire left-handed batsman and off-spinner.
A Cricket Australia spokesperson, quoted on the governing body´swww.cricket.com.au website, said in response to Moeen´s allegation:”Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and have no place in our sport, orin society.
“We have a clear set of values and behaviours that comes with representingour country.
“We take this matter very seriously, and are following up with the ECB(England and Wales Cricket Board) as a matter of urgency to seek furtherclarification around the alleged incident.”
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The ECB, when contacted by Britain´s Press Association news agency, said itwould not comment on the incident at this stage.
Moeen said the Australia player in question had denied making the commentsto him at the time.
“I told a couple of the guys what the player had said to me and I think(England coach) Trevor Bayliss (who is himself Australian) must have raisedit with Darren Lehmann, the Australians´ coach,” he said.
“Lehmann asked the player, ´Did you call Moeen Osama?´ He denied it,saying, ´No, I said, “Take that, you part-timer”´.
“I must say I was amused when I heard that for there is a world ofdifference between the words ´Osama´ and ´part-timer´.
“Although I couldn´t have mistaken ´part-timer´ for ´Osama´, obviously Ihad to take the player´s word for it, though for the rest of the match Iwas angry,” he explained.
