Cricket Australia is set to investigate the allegations of racial abuse levelled on an unidentified Australian player by England all-rounder Moeen Ali.
The allegations of the abuse were mentioned in Ali's yet-to-be-released autobiography, an excerpt of which appeared in the UK newspaper - The Times, reported cricket.com.au.
Ali claimed, in his book, that he was told, "Take that, Osama," by an Australian player during the first Test of the 2015 Ashes series in Cardiff, wherein Ali made a brilliant Ashes bow, starring with a five-wicket haul and scoring 77 runs in the win.
"It was a great first Ashes Test in terms of my personal performance. 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," Ali wrote in his book.
"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," the Birmingham-born all-rounder added.
Ali further stated that the Baggy Greens player refuted the allegations upon raising the issue towards the end of the series, with the latter saying that many of his best friends were Muslims.
"Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and have no place in our sport, or in society. We have a clear set of values and behaviours that comes with representing our country. We take this matter very seriously, and are following up with the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) as a matter of urgency to seek further clarification around the alleged incident," a Cricket Australia spokesperson said.
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Earlier this week, Ali, in an interview with the Times, criticised the Australian team by describing them "rude" and "disrespectful."
"Everyone you speak to, they are the only team I've played against my whole life that I've actually disliked. 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. The first game I ever played against them, in Sydney, just before the 2015 World Cup, they were not just going hard at you, they were almost abusing you," Ali said.
"That was the first time it hit me. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but the more I played against them they were just as bad, the Ashes here (in 2015) they were worse actually. Not intimidating, just rude. Individually they are fine and the Aussies we've had at Worcester have been fantastic, lovely guys," he added.