Saqib Mahmood: Pace bowler says he was labelled 'terrorist' on social media
- Published
Saqib Mahmood signed his first Lancashire contract in 2015
Lancashire pace bowler Saqib Mahmood says he was called a "terrorist" after he missed the England Lions tour of India because he could not get a visa.
Uncapped Mahmood, 22, has been called up to England's Test and Twenty20 squads for New Zealand in November.
Unable to obtain a visa for the January tour because of his Pakistani heritage, he received abuse on social media.
"All of a sudden I was being called a terrorist and I had not done anything wrong," Mahmood told the BBC's Stumped.
"People thought I was plotting something when I was going on a cricket tour. I was getting called not a lot of nice things, hence why I tried to forget about it all."
With 21 wickets in Division Two, Mahmood is one of four players included in both England squads, alongside Joe Denly, Sam Curran and Matthew Parkinson.
On receiving the call, Mahmood said: "I knew the squad was being announced at two so all morning I was literally just staring at my phone waiting for it to ring.
"I ended up getting the call at twenty to two just as I thought the call was not coming. It was a great feeling - it was almost a too-good-to-be-true feeling."
He added his mind "went blank" when England selector Ed Smith gave him the news - so much so that he was unable to take anything else in.
"He told me I was in both squads and it was such a weird feeling," added Mahmood, whose heroes include former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee, former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar and England's leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson.
"At the end he asked me if I had any questions and I did not want to tell him that I had not heard a thing he said."
You can hear more from Saqib Mahmood on this week's Stumped podcast from the BBC World Service.