Australian Player Called Me Osama During 2015 Ashes, Alleges Moeen Ali

England allrounder Moeen Ali has further tarnished Australia’s image by revealing that one of their players of the 2015 Ashes team subjected him to a racial taunt.

Moeen Ali is all set to release his autobiography. The book is being serialised in The Times ahead of its publication later this month. And prior to its release, Moeen is revealing some sensational incidents to increase the interest. In the latest revelation, Moeen said he was abused during the first Ashes Test at Cardiff in 2015. During that game, he had scored a vital 77 in the first innings before taking five wickets in a 169-run England victory.

However, things went sour for him when one of the Australian players called him ‘Osama’.

“It was a great first Ashes Test in terms of my personal performance,” Moeen writes in the book. “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. 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 Trevor Bayliss [the England coach] 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,” he added.

Moeen further said that he had brought the incident up at the end of England’s 3-2 series win. However, the accused player once again refused the allegations.

Earlier this year, Moeen had also revealed he was racially abused by the Australian fans during the last Ashes.

“Guys were sticking their fingers up at me,” he writes. “I expected Australia to be quite rough, but not as bad as this. I hadn’t heard such comments for a long time. I got some of this abuse even in the practice games.”

Moeen, nonetheless, did little to shut the spectators up. He scored just 179 runs at an average of 19.88 in addition to the five wickets he picked up as Australia thrashed England 4-0.

Meanwhile, in an interview in The Times on Friday, Moeen had gone on to call Australia rude and disrespectful. He had also said that he has no sympathy for their banned trio- Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

“Everyone you speak to . . . they are the only team I’ve played against my whole life that I’ve actually disliked,” Moeen told Mike Atherton. “Not because it’s Australia and they are the old enemy but because of the way they carry on and [their] disrespect of people and players.”