Scotland’s all-time leading wicket-taker, 32-year-old off-spinner Majid Haq, has been sent home from the Cricket World Cup after tweeting a race-related message.
Having been left out of his side’s 148-run thrashing by Sri Lanka, the man with 60 ODI wickets sent a tweet saying “Always tougher when your in the minority! #colour #race” [sic], which he soon deleted. However, Cricket Scotland officials had already been alerted to it, and earlier on Wednesday issued a statement confirming that he would play no further part in the competition.
Three wickets in four matches has been all that Haq has mustered in the tournament, and the all-rounder has also struggled with the bat; having previously opened the batting for his country, his top score was just thirty-one, against fellow associate nation Afghanistan.
Haq, who was born in Renfrewshire but is of Pakistani descent, clearly felt that the reasons for his non-selection lay somewhere other than his poor performances, and this was found to breach Cricket Scotland’s “internal code of conduct.”
Majid Haq tweeted “Always tougher when your in the minority!! #colour#race”. He has since deleted the post.
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) March 11, 2015
The off-spinner, who holds the record number of appearances for Scotland with 209, had been notable in the first four games that Scotland had played for his lack of pace; his loopy off-breaks were clocked at slightly above 40mph in the first few games of the tournament.
Majid Haq, bowling with the wind behind him, has just been timed at 41.6mph.
— George Dobell (@GeorgeDobell1) February 26, 2015
However, he will now return home rather than staying with the squad ahead of Scotland’s final game of the pool stage, against Australia at Hobart on Saturday.
It is not the first time Haq has been punished for social media comments. He will also serve a three-week ban at the start of the season from his league, the West District Cricket Union, for comments made on Twitter.
