Never one to mince his words, Cricketer Gautam Gambhir has criticised the BCCI, Supreme Court appointed CoA and Cricket Association Of Bengal after former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin was invited to ring the bell at Eden Gardens ahead of the first T20 against West Indies.
This is not the first time Gambhir has used Twitter as a platform to lash out at someone, having taken on everyone from Pakistani cricketers like Afridi to politicians like Omar Abdullah, and even ex-Indian cricketers like Bishen Singh Bedi and Chetan Chauhan after they opposed Ranji selection of Navdeep Saini calling him an ‘outsider’.
In a tweet on Sunday, Gambhir said, ”India may have won today at Eden but I am sorry @bcci, CoA &CAB lost. Looks like the No Tolerance Policy against Corrupt takes a leave on Sundays! I know he was allowed to contest HCA polls but then this is shocking…The bell is ringing, hope the powers that be are listening.”
India may have won today at Eden but I am sorry @bcci, CoA &CAB lost. Looks like the No Tolerance Policy against Corrupt takes a leave on Sundays! I know he was allowed to contest HCA polls but then this is shocking….The bell is ringing, hope the powers that be are listening. pic.twitter.com/0HKbp2Bs9r
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) November 4, 2018
Azharuddin was banned for life from Cricket by BCCI in 2000 after he was named by disgraced South African Captain Hansie Cronje as the man who introduced Cronje to bookies. High Court quashed the ban in 2012 but BCCI never officially lifted the ban. However, they did allow him to contest the Hyderabad Cricket Association elections, referred to by Gambhir in his tweet.
Gambhir had earlier opposed the appointment of Manoj Prabhakar as the bowling coach of Delhi over the same reasons, Prabhakar was also named in the Match-Fixing saga that shocked the nation in 2000.
While Gambhir is clearly taking the zero tolerance policy against the corrupt seriously, BCCI, CoA and CAB (currently led by the man who was made the captain to revive Team India after the Match Fixing investigations) clearly have some explaining to do to clear their stand.
