Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer was accused of religious discrimination by officials of the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU). At the same time, he alleged that during training in bio-bubble, the clerics were also invited to offer prayers in the camp. Jaffer has denied these allegations.
Jaffer resigned as the coach of the Uttarakhand team on Tuesday. He was made coach for one year by paying a fee of Rs 55 lakh. Last month, the Uttarakhand team lost 4 out of 5 matches in the domestic tournament Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
CAU Secretary Mahim Verma and Chairman of the Selection Committee Rizwan Shamshad had alleged that Jaffer replaced Iqbal Abdullah as the captain in place of Kunal Chandila. Iqbal got batting up to take the lead, while opener Chandila was sent to the middle order.
He said that after the maulvis came to the training camp, Jaffer also changed the slogan of the team 'Ram Bhakta Hanuman Ki Jai'. The Uttarakhand team had been playing with 'Ram Bhakta Hanuman Ki Jai' slogan since last year. Jafar reportedly made it 'Go Uttarakhand'.
Extremely hurt upon communal allegations, Jaffer said, "The communal angle that has been brought up is very, very sad. They accused me of favoring Iqbal Abdulla, I wanted to make him as the captain, which is completely wrong. I wanted to make Jay Bista the captain, but Rizwan Shamshad and the other selectors suggested that you make Iqbal the captain since he is senior player and has played IPL and is much older...I agreed to their recommendation."
On changing of chants, Jaffer said that the team used to recite a chant of Sikh community to which he suggested they can say "Go Uttarakhand" instead.
"First of all they said the Maulavis came there in a bio-bubble and we offered Namaz. Let me clear tis out, the Maulavi, Maulana, who came on two or three Fridays during the camp in Dehradun, were not invited me. It was Iqbal Abdulla (Uttarakhand player) who sought mine and the manager's permission only for the Friday prayer," added Jaffer.
"While our prayers are conducted in the dressing room, the Friday prayers have to be done in a gathering so he thought it would be better if someone comes over to facilitate...And we did the namaz in the dressing room for five minutes after the nets.
"If I was communal, I would have altered the practice timings according to our prayer timings but that's not how I am," he added.