England cricket player concerned for family after abuse from crowds
Birmingham born Moeen Ali revealed he was concerned for his family’s safety after being booed by Indian supporters in the One Day International at Edgbaston.
The cricketer, who is of Pakistani background, endured booing from an audience of Indian supporters.
Ali expressed fear for his family’s safety after the incident and recounts his father’s reaction to the crowd,
“I did hear guys with Brummie accents telling me to play for my own country, so it was a tough one. They were more Brummie than I was.
“But it was a shame because I only live five minutes down the road from Edgbaston, and my family were there and my friends were there and everyone was getting quite angry.
“I was surprised my dad didn’t do anything, to be honest with you, because he is quite a hot-tempered person as well, so I was very surprised that he just sat there and watched the game.
“Obviously he was getting angry, but he never did anything, but I was looking in the crowd to see if there was a fight anywhere and make sure my dad wasn’t one of them.
“I thought my dad would definitely lose it at some stage, but thankfully he didn’t.”
But Ali accepts it is a part of his career,
“No matter what you do, no matter how good you try to be, you are always going to get a certain amount of haters, so I just accept that and carry on. It doesn’t really bother me at all.
“I have had a lot of Indian friends who have apologised on behalf of other people for the boos, and it’s nice, it’s really nice to hear that. That sort of thing inspires me to keep going and not lose heart.”
The player made headlines previously for wearing wrist bands with “Save Gaza” and “Free Palestine” written on them during a test match.
He responded to detractors stating his motives were personal rather than political. Still outspoken on such affairs he has recently implored British Asians not to join extremist group Islamic State (IS)
