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Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Updated 09 Jul, 2018 03:15pm

Maxwell claims snubbing Sarfraz's handshake was a 'genuine oversight'

When Cricket Australia (CA) handed out bans to their star players — Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft — the idea was to cut out the toxic culture and general arrogance in the dressing room.

The Aussies "play hard but fair", the cricket world was told and assured that measures will be taken to ensure that antics contrary to the spirit of the game are not repeated. On Sunday, however, it appeared that Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell may not have received the memo.

After being beaten fair and square in the Tri-nations final, Maxwell appeared to ignore Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed's offer for a customary end-of-the-game handshake.

The snub was caught on camera and, as expected, it created a massive backlash on social media with Pakistani fans berating the Aussie for his uncalled-for gesture (or lack thereof).

The reaction was strong enough that Maxwell had to take notice.

In a tweet, Maxwell said that the incident "appears unsportsmanlike... but it was a genuine oversight" and that "I am currently looking for Sarfraz in the hotel to shake his hand".

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