Celebrity Clasico: Raj Kundra withdraws himself from the game

The renowned businessman Raj Kundra has withdrawn his name from the upcoming Celebrity Clasico football charity event on Sunday. Virat Kohli led All Heart FC will clash against All Stars FC which will be captained by Abhishek Bachchan in a charity game to be held in Mumbai at Andheri. This is the second edition of the event whose proceedings are donated to the charity. However, Kundra also made it clear that BCCI threatened to not release the players if he plays and so he was withdrawing his name.

Raj Kundra who was set to feature for All Stars FC was also the co-owner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals. It was suspended along with Chennai Super Kings by the Supreme Court for two years in 2015 over corruption and match-fixing allegations. The name of Kundra had also cropped up in the saga as he was questioned by the police during the investigations.

Kundra blasts at BCCI

Raj Kundra informed Mumbai Mirror about the news of him being omitted from the celebrity football event as the BCCI refused to release the players. “I got a call from GS Entertainment on Friday evening saying the BCCI will not allow cricketers to participate if I was involved in the event. I asked GS Entertainment to give such a thing in writing but they refused,” he said. GS Entertainment is organising the event with Cornerstone, which looks after business interests of Virat Kohli.

What can I say if they choose to stoop to the level of keeping me away from a charity event,” he added. Though representatives of both firms were not available to comment anything on the matter. While the top BCCI officials are in New Zealand for an ICC meeting, sources from the Committee of Administrators (CoA) said they haven’t discussed the Kundra matter.