Azhar rings Eden bell, Gambhir slams BCCI
Gautam Gambhir is livid. Fretting and fuming, on Monday, he took to twitter to lash out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) for allowing Mohammad Azharuddin to ring the bell at Eden Gardens.
The ringing of the fiveminute bell, introduced at Lord's, is a ritual that started in 2007. An international cricketer or administrator or a well-known enthusiast of the sport is tasked to perform the act. However, Azharuddin had been accused of match-fixing in the early 2000s. The Hyderabad batsman featured in 99 Test matches and 334 ODIs for India before the BCCI banned him over the match-fixing scandal.
Gambhir, 37, took to Twitter and said that even though the Indian team came out victorious in the game against West Indies, the BCCI, CoA and CAB had lost after giving Azhar the opportunity to ring the bell.
"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," the left-handed batsman tweeted. However, CAB officials refused to comment on Gambhir's view.
Repeated calls to CAB president Sourav Ganguly and joint secretary Abhishek Dalmia went unanswered. From his debut hundred in 1984-85 at Kolkata to a match-saving hundred in 1993, Azhar and Eden Gardens have a connection.
While the BCCI has never formally issued any statement on the Azharuddin issue for the past few years, he has been a regular feature in the board's events. His financial dues, though, are yet to be cleared. Earlier this year, Gambhir wasn't happy after Manoj Prabhakar was shortlisted for Delhi coach's job. It was learnt that Virender Sehwag, one of the members of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association's Cricket Advisory Committee, didn't like some of the questions that Gambhir had posed to Prabhakar. Two years ago, the DDCA was forced to replace Ajay Jadeja with Vijay Dahiya after Gambhir made it clear that he won't play if the former remained the coach. Outspoken Gambhir has in the past expressed his views on wide-ranging topics from politics, terrorism to sports.