Kirti Azad, TMC MP and 1983 World Cup winner, has raised questions about captain Suryakumar, coach Gambhir and ICC chief Jay Shah “giving precedence” to one religion.
India batsman Ishan Kishan, a key member of the T20 World Cup-winning squad, dismissed a question on Tuesday about 1983 World Cup winner Kirti Azad’s objections to the trophy being specifically moved to a Hindu temple in Ahmedabad. Azad’s claim was that this was against the ethos of a secular, multi-religious state.
Kishan was asked about this while landing at Patna airport.
He replied: “Well, we won well in the World Cup. Now what do I say about what Kirti Azad said?” In response to another reporter’s question, he said, “Yes, you’re asking that’s a good question! You should be asking how much fun we had, and how we ran.”
He turned again to a reporter, spoke in Hindi, and said, “You have asked a useless question (‘bekaar’),” then smiled and walked away.
Kirti Azad, who is also a Trinamool MP from West Bengal, raised questions about India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, coach Gautam Gambhir and ICC president Jay Shah taking the World Cup trophy he won on Sunday to Hanuman Mandir 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’s post by Azad.
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.
He also said, “This team represents India – not the family of Surya Kumar Yadav or Jay Shah,” and then mentioned non-Hindu players as well to make his point.
“(Mohammed) Siraj never displayed it in a mosque. Sanju (Samson) never took it to church… The latter had a major role to play and was the man of the lead,” he wrote.
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.
Arish Chhabra is an associate editor on the Hindustan Times online team, where he writes news reports and explanatory features, as well as overseeing the site’s coverage. His career spans nearly two decades across India’s most respected newsrooms in print, digital and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats—from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary—building a body of work that reflects editorial rigor and a deep curiosity about the community for which he writes. Areesh studied English Literature, Sociology and History along with Journalism at Punjab University in Chandigarh, and began his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of Little Big City: What Life is Like from Chandigarh, a collection of critical essays originally published as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, which examines the culture and politics of a city that is much more than just its famous architecture – and in doing so, holds up a mirror to modern India. During his stints at BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV and Jagran New Media, he has worked across formats and languages; Mainly English, as well as Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project which was replicated around the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and quality content. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, he developed a website to streamline academic research in management. At Bennett University’s Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from small town to larger town to megalopolis for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture—a perspective that guides his writing and worldview. When he’s not working, he’s constantly reading long-form journalism or watching cerebral content, sometimes both at the same time.Read more
