Bharat Arun, bowling coach of India, has defended Team India for wearing camouflage caps during the third ODI between India and Australia in Ranchi. According to him, players wanted to express solidarity with the Indian soldiers and complaint of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is beyond their control.
“We did what we really felt to show solidarity for the country. BCCI got permission for it. Whatever PCB is saying, it is not in our control,” Arun told reporters on the eve of fifth ODI between India and Australia.
Despite ICC’s clarification that the BCCI had sought permission from it to wear the caps, the governing body of Pakistan cricket wrote to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was politicizing the game of cricket and should be penalized for their act.
“The BCCI sought permission from the ICC to wear the caps as part of a fundraising drive and in memory of fallen soldiers who have died, which was granted,” ICC spokeswoman Claire Furlong had told The Associated Press in an e-mail on Monday.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani had said he has “strongly taken up the matter with the ICC.”
“There’s absolutely no misunderstanding in the ICC about our position,” Mani said late Sunday in Karachi. “We believe that cricket and sports should not be used for politics and we have said this very clearly. Their (India) credibility in the cricketing world has gone down very badly.”