By Ronak Saraiya
Former Indian skipper and head coach Anil Kumble has come out in support of Wasim Jaffer after his controversial exit from the Uttrakhand cricket team.
The whole issue took a drastic turn after Jaffer stepped down as the head coach of Uttrakhand due to constant interference of the state board in the team. Earlier this week, a few officials of the Cricket Association of Uttrakhand (CAU) alleged Jaffer of being communal and biased and causing unrest in the team.
Jaffer denied all allegations made by the officials and found support in the form of the former Indian skipper and teammate Anil Kumble.
“With you Wasim, did the right thing. Unfortunately, the players who’ll miss your mentorship,” Kumble tweeted in support of the former Indian opener.
Other than being former teammates in the Indian cricket team, Kumble and Jaffer have collaborated in the IPL, being a crucial part of the King’s XI coaching staff, with Kumble being the head coach and Jaffer being the batting coach of the franchise.
In his tweet Jaffer had put out clarifications on the allegations against him to which the former left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan also came in support of his former team mate, tweeting, “It is unfortunate that you have to explain this.”
Sighting a communal angle, the issue did not take long to turn political when suspended Congress leader Sanjay Jha took to Twitter calling out prominent names of Indian cricket like Sachin Tendulkar, Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Vice-captain Rohit Sharma asking them to speak up on this issue just like they did during the farmer protest.
“Will you please speak up for Wasim Jaffer? If you need any help, I will draft the tweet for you, which you can copy-paste. Your action should be on Twitter, public, like during the farm protests.” He wrote taking a jibe at the prominent names of the nation.
Jaffer has played 31 tests for India and has been a huge name in the domestic circuit of Indian cricket for close to two decades. With 19,000+ first-class runs, he also became the first cricketer to play 150 Ranji matches.