Gautam Gambhir slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the social medial on Sunday when former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin was given the honour to ring the bell at the iconic Eden Gardens before the first Twenty20 International (T20I) between India and West Indies in Kolkata.
“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,” an angry Gambhir tweeted.
Azharuddin easily was one of the significant members of the history of Indian cricket who served the nation for more than a decade and even captained Team India. In his span of 15 years as an Indian cricketer, Azharuddin played 99 Tests and334 One-Day Internationals (ODIs).
However, the cricket fraternity was struck with a major shock when Azharuddin was charged with fixing international matches for money. He was subsequently banned by the BCCI in 2000 for bringing disgrace to the game.
In an emotional hearing, popular South African captain Hansie Cronje broke down and pleaded guilty to committing match fixing by uniting with the bookies. He even said that Azhar was the one who introduced those bookies to him.
In January, 2017, Azharuddin was disqualified from contesting elections for the post of president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) after his nomination papers were not accepted by the officers because there was no clarity on Azharuddin’s ban.
However, earlier this year Azharuddin was allowed by the BCCI to contest for HCA’s president’s post. The Indian cricket body said that Azharuddin was no longer prohobitted from holding any position in the ICC, BCCI or any of its affiliated bodies.
