Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali ignited a fresh row after the controversial dismissal of Salman Ali Agha during the second ODI between Bangladesh and Pakistan. The incident erupted in the 39th over when Agha stepped outside the crease and casually rolled the ball back towards Mehidy Hasan Miraz, only for the Bangladesh all-rounder to whip off the bails and appeal.
Basit accepted the law yet attacked the spirit. He insisted the dismissal ticked the rulebook but trampled cricket’s unwritten code. “According to the laws the decision stands correct,” Basit admitted during a YouTube discussion, before swiftly twisting the knife. “But the moment he tried to return the ball to the bowler, the on-field umpire should have stepped in.”
That remark targeted the officials as much as Miraz. Basit argued the umpire could have paused the moment and checked the appeal. In his view, a quiet word with the Bangladesh captain might have cooled the situation before the decision raced upstairs.
He framed the argument through cricket’s long-running “spirit versus law” tug-of-war. Basit pointed towards past flashpoints, including the Shakib Al Hasan and Angelo Mathews timed-out saga, then dragged an older memory into the debate. Sachin Tendulkar once collided with Shoaib Akhtar and fell run out, he recalled, and Pakistan backed the umpire’s call without complaint.
Yet Basit insisted Agha’s dismissal carried a different flavour. “The captain could have withdrawn the appeal,” he argued, claiming that gesture might have preserved cricket’s spirit during a bilateral series rather than a cut-throat ICC event.
History offered Basit another example. He dragged the clock back to the 1987 World Cup in Lahore when West Indies quick Courtney Walsh spotted Saleem Jaffar wandering out of his crease at the non-striker’s end. Walsh simply warned him instead of running him out.
Basit also aimed a quiet jab at Agha himself. He labelled the casual return of the ball a lapse in professionalism. “Professional cricket demands professional habits,” he argued, pointing towards Australian players as the benchmark.
He even recalled a chat with Steve Waugh about that exact detail. Waugh’s blunt response stuck with him: “We’re professionals. You do your job, we do ours.” Basit deployed that anecdote to underline a simple point — batters should never assume courtesy on a professional field.
The debate then swung to Agha’s reaction. Basit criticised the Pakistan batter for flinging his helmet in anger after the dismissal. “Everyone feels anger,” he said, “but players must control it.”
