Trinamool Congress MP and former cricketer Kirti Azad has raised questions over Indian T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, coach Gautam Gambhir and ICC chief Jay Shah taking the World Cup trophy he won on Sunday to a Hindu temple in Ahmedabad.
“Why not a mosque? Why not a church? Why not a gurudwara?… The trophy belongs to 1.4 billion Indians of every faith – not a victory lap for any religion!” Read X post by Azad, who was a member of the team that won the 1983 ODI World Cup.
He said it was shameful that one religion took precedence. “When we won the World Cup under Kapil Dev in 1983, we had Hindu Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in the team. We brought the trophy to our religious birthplace, our motherland India, Bharat Hindustan,” he wrote.
“This team represents India – not Surya Kumar Yadav’s family or Jay Shah’s family,” he said, then mentioned non-Hindu players as well who made his point clear: “(Mohammed) Siraj never paraded him in a mosque. Sanju (Samson) never took him to church… The latter had a major role to play and was the man of the tournament.”
On Sunday night, Suryakumar Yadav, head coach and former BJP MP Gambhir and International Cricket Council (ICC) president Jay Shah, son of Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah, visited the Hanuman temple in Ahmedabad and took blessings with the T20 World Cup in hand.
Azad’s TMC, which has ruled Bengal for more than a decade, has been at loggerheads with the BJP with the state elections just two months away. She has accused the BJP of communalising state politics through a Hindutva-centric strategy, while the BJP has accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of “appeasing” Muslims instead.
Team India created history by claiming the T20 World Cup title for a record third time and became the first team ever to defend and win the title as a home nation, with a 96-run win over New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
