The Indian cricket team has been on a roll by winning continues series for a while now. And the talent pool is the biggest ever at BCCI’s disposal. Only the best of the best are filtered and selected by the board by taking a few factors into consideration. They are the conditions, requirements and necessary combination.
For example, this is clearly evident in the form of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. The spin duo has been out of the shorter format as the new wrist spinners have been performing well for the team. The BCCI recently announced the Indian squad for the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand. The selectors opted to give the youngsters a look in for the series.
The two beneficiaries who got their respective maiden call-ups to the national set-up were Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer and Hyderabad’s Mohammad Siraj. Siraj has made giant strides in his young career thus far. Iyer has also been a prolific performer in the domestic circuit for Mumbai since the last couple of seasons.
However, a day ago, former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt had taken to micro-blogging site Twitter to question the selection norms of the BCCI selectors. He tried to steer a controversy around BCCI’s selection policy. Sanjiv Bhatt questioned lack of Muslim players in the current Indian squad.
He had cited that there have been very few Muslim cricketers in the Indian team in the recent past. “Kya iss Samay Bhartiya cricket team me koi bhi Muslim Khiladi hai (Is there any Muslim cricketer in the Indian cricket team at present?),” the former IPS officer had asked in his tweet.
क्या इस समय भारतीय क्रिकेट टीम में कोई मुस्लिम खिलाड़ी है ?
आज़ादी से आज तक ऐसा कितनी बार हुआ कि भारत की क्रिकेट… https://t.co/Nb6ufi71qX
— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) October 22, 2017
The remarks made by the officer could have easily sparked a controversy. The turbanator was quick to respond to this question by the former IPS officer and he spun a doosra aimed at him. Bhajji is known for his comebacks be it with the bowl or words and he once again showed us why.
Bhajji took Twitter to slam the former Indian civil servant and shut his antics regarding BCCI’s selection policy and creating uproar around it. He wrote, “players are Indians before being a Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Christian. (Oh that reminds me of Chak De India!).”
हिंदू मुस्लिम सिख ईसाई आपस में है भाई। क्रिकेट टीम में खेलने वाला हर खिलाड़ी हिंदुस्तानी है उसकी जात या रंग की बात नहीं होनी चाहिए (जय भारत) https://t.co/UVvSHaLJdY
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) October 23, 2017
Veteran Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh might have been sidelined from Indian cricket team but his belief in selection ethics of BCCI remains intact. Bhajji was right on his money and gave a perfect answer one could have ever given.
Bhatt interestingly tweeted about this on Sunday, a day before the announcement of Indian cricket squads for upcoming battles. And two Muslim players found themselves in the Indian team. Mohammed Siraj was named in the T20 squad which will play New Zealand and Mohammed Shami has as expected found himself in the Test team which will play Sri Lanka.
A country of 1.3 billion people obsessed with cricket always wants to see its national team doing exceptionally well. For that to happen the selection committee has to remain away from such divisive and unethical comments coming from different segments of society.
Also Read: Vinod Kambli Finally Buried The Hatchet With Sachin Tendulkar, Reconciles After 7 Years