Former batsman Basit Ali has made an outrageous claim that India may deliberately lose their upcoming World Cup matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to keep Pakistan out of the semifinals.
Basit, who played 19 Tests and 50 ODIs between 1993 and 1996, also said India intentionally played poorly against Afghanistan.
"India will never want Pakistan to reach the semi-finals. They have matches remaining against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Everybody saw how India won against Afghanistan," Basit said during a talk show in 'ARY News'.
Unbeaten India are yet to clinch a semifinal spot though they have put one foot on a last-four berth with 11 points from six matches. They play England on Sunday before taking on Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in their last two matches.
Asked again if he thought India may deliberately lose their matches to keep Pakistan out of semi-finals, he said, "They (India) will play in such a way that nobody will know what has happened. What happened against Afghanistan?"
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