Moeen Ali has been in cricket only for a short time, but already, for reasons unrelated to cricket, he is one of the most famous cricketers in the word. He was first noticed because of his long beard, which is according to his Muslim religious traditions. It is unknown in the world of sports for a sportsman to wear his religion on his sleeves, and so there were many who didn’t take kindly to this. Plus, his beard marked him out as belonging to a certain religion.
Moeen did spectacularly well in the Test series against India, which established his reputation as a cricketer. But he became equally famous or infamous for reasons beyond the scope of cricket. The Israel-Palestine conflict was at its severest when the young English cricketer wore the “Save Gaza” and “Free Palestine” wristbands while on the field during the Lord’s Test at London. This led to a wide condemnation by those who didn’t wish politics to be mixed with cricket and forced the ICC to admonish him and ban him from wearing the wristband or making any political statement, whether by action or through words.
Cricket authorities don’t take kindly to the mixing of religion with sports. This was then followed by something highly condemnable, but something Moeen couldn’t be blamed for. During the entire ODI series against India, as well as during the lone T20 match, Moeen was mercilessly booed by the Indian supporters. Now most Indian supporters are actually second or third generation British citizens who have rarely been to India. They identify themselves with India, though, and vociferously support the Indian cricket team. Also, because of the religious tension between the British-Indian and British-Pakistani communities in Britain, neither appreciates the players from the other community playing for the English cricket team.
It wasn’t really a surprise to see Moeen mercilessly booed in his home ground at Edgbaston in Birmingham, by a crowd which had over 80% supporting India. No doubt, most people who booed Moeen were from his own home town, not visitors from India, which made it doubly sad to see the young man being booed this way.
Moeen Ali’s family have called him being booed at Edgbaston “disgraceful” after a complaint from a spectator resulted in police classing it as a “non-crime hate-related incident”.
Munir Ali, Moeen’s father said: “We are very disappointed with what happened. It should have been a special day: Moeen was playing for his country in the city of his birth. It is the city I was born in and the city my mother was born in. The whole family was looking forward to it and we thought he would receive a warm welcome.
“Instead he was abused from the start. He was abused because he is a Muslim and because of his Pakistan heritage. That is disgraceful.
“We have experienced so much kindness and goodwill from all communities – Indian, British and Pakistani – in recent months, so it is disappointing that some supporters let their team down with this behaviour. There is still a problem with racism between Asian communities in the UK.
“Moeen does not want to report the incident. He wants to concentrate on his cricket and he wants to be a role model for all young people to show that, if you work hard, you can succeed in this country. I don’t know why anyone would hate him for that.”
A member of the crowd made accusations against Indian supporters of racially motivated attacks, which led to a police investigation, but nothing much has come of it as yet. Police have viewed the entire incident as a “hate-related incident” and said that they would need more evidence.
Inspector Jason Wathes said: “We have received a hate crime report from an anonymous third party about booing from a number of people aimed at an England cricketer on Sunday 7 September, at Edgbaston cricket ground.
“While there could be a number of reasons behind the booing, it has been perceived as racially motivated. We have now fully looked into the matter and decided the most proportionate and appropriate course of action is to record it as a non-crime hate-related incident, in line with the West Midlands police hate crime policy.”
In Britain, a hate incident is described as “any incident, which may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate.”
MS Dhoni meanwhile, refused to condemn the booing when asked about it after the match, pointing out that Ravindra Jadeja had received similar treatment from the English crowd during the Test series after his clash with Jimmy Anderson.
