England all-rounder Moeen Ali’s allegation that he was called ‘Osama’ by an Australian player during the 2015 Ashes is set to be investigated by Cricket Australia.
Ali, in his soon-to-be-released autobiography, claimed to be racially abused in the 2015 Ashes series by an unmentioned player. Although the autobiography has yet to be released, an excerpt appeared in UK newspaper The Times.
The incident was said to have happened during the first Test in Cardiff, on Moeen’s Ashes debut where he scored 77 and took five wickets in a comfortable win for the hosts.
‘It was a great first Ashes Test in terms of my personal performance,’ Ali wrote. ‘However, there was one incident which had distracted me.
‘An Australian player had 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.
‘I told a couple of the guys what the player had said to me and I think [England coach] Trevor Bayliss must have raised it with Darren Lehmann, the Australians’ coach.
‘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, obviously I had to take the player’s word for it, though for the rest of the match I was angry.’
This comes after another statement from Ali who called Australia ‘rude’ in an interview with The Times.
