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England all-rounder Moeen Ali insists he will not let 'haters' affect his England ambitions

England's Moeen Ali celebrates taking the wicket of India's Ravindra Jadeja, during the Fourth Investec Test at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.
Image: England's Moeen Ali refuses to let haters get him down

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has insisted he will not allow the "haters" to get to him and he tries to make his way in international cricket.

Birmingham-born Moeen, whose family is of Pakistani heritage, was booed by Indian supporters at Edgbaston during the summer.

But the all-rounder is refusing to allow the catcalls deflect him from his mission to establish himself in the England team.

Moeen said: "No matter what you do, no matter how good you try to be, you are always going to get a certain amount of haters, so I just accept that and carry on. It doesn't really bother me at all.

"I live by a phrase, 'A lion doesn't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep', so I just get on with it.

"I have had a lot of Indian friends who have apologised on behalf of other people for the boos, and it's nice, it's really nice to hear that. That sort of thing inspires me to keep going and not lose heart."

Moeen admitted he was concerned for his family during the game, convinced that his father, who was among the crowd, would not stand by amid the attack on his son.

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I live by a phrase, 'A lion doesn't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep', so I just get on with it.
Moeen Ali

He said: "I did hear guys with Brummie accents telling me to play for my own country, so it was a tough one. They were more Brummie than I was.

Shame

"But it was a shame because I only live five minutes down the road from Edgbaston, and my family were there and my friends were there and everyone was getting quite angry.

"I was surprised my dad didn't do anything, to be honest with you, because he is quite a hot-tempered person as well, so I was very surprised that he just sat there and watched the game.

"Obviously he was getting angry, but he never did anything, but I was looking in the crowd to see if there was a fight anywhere and make sure my dad wasn't one of them. I thought my dad would definitely lose it at some stage, but thankfully he didn't."

Moeen also found himself in the headlines for wearing "Save Gaza" and "Free Palestine" wristbands during a game. However, he was adamant his motives were humanitarian, rather than political.

He said: "I would probably wear anything that was for humanity. Those Gaza bands that I wore, people saw it as a political statement, but it was more a humanity thing, it wasn't at all a political statement.

"I probably wouldn't wear it on a cricket pitch now as I'm not allowed to, but I would wear anything that was humanitarian."

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