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Moeen Ali's father Munir hits back after Edgbaston abuse

Image: Moeen Ali: Subjected to abuse by section of crowd at Edgbaston

Moeen Ali's father Munir has hit out at the abuse directed towards his son during England's Twenty20 win over India.

The Worcestershire all-rounder was subjected to booing by some of the India fans at Edgbaston, abuse Munir Ali believes had racial undertones.

A complaint was also reportedly made by a member of the public, but no further action can be taken by police without a corresponding complaint from the player, who has said he does not want to pursue the matter.

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“If further action was to be taken, the victim would need to make a complaint,” a spokesman for West Midlands police told ESPNCricinfo.

“While the booing was perceived by the complainant as being racially motivated, booing is not in itself a crime. Had someone been shouting an offensive term, it would be different.”

Role model

But Munir Ali does not believe his son should have had to deal with such abuse, as he said: "Moeen was playing for his country in the city of his birth.

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"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.”

In the final Sky Sports Cricket podcast of the summer, David Lloyd also discussed England’s ‘predictable’ ODI series defeat to India and why he thinks Alastair Cook should be dropped for next year’s World Cup. Download it from www.skysports.com/podcast or click below.

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