World Cup 2019: Congress and SP leaders oppose the use of orange in Indian jersey

Team India is currently playing the 2019 edition of the World Cup and after first five matches, they have won four and are placed third on the points table. Virat Kohli and Co should be high on confidence prior to the next match versus the Windies at Old Trafford in Manchester. However, their seventh game against England on June 30 at Edgbaston in Birmingham is expected to be an absolute cracker.

In the high-voltage clash on Super Sunday, the Men in Blue will don the orange jersey as the outfits of both India and England are pretty similar. However, the fact that Indian players will be donning orange jersey, hasn’t gone down well in the country’s political fraternity who are speaking out against it. MLAs in the Maharashtra state assembly condemned the move by the national team.

Politicians criticise the Indian Prime Minister

Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi didn’t mince any words in saying that the government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had their influence in the move and said that the jersey was a part of growing saffronisation in the nation.

“Modi ji wants to saffronise the entire country. A Muslim was the one who designed the Indian Tricolour. There are other colours in the Tricolour, why choose only orange? It will be better if their jersey is based on the Tricolour,” Azmi was quoted as saying in India Today.

Reverberating his words, former minister and Congress MLA Naseem Khan said the Modi government is playing saffron politics. “Ever since the Modi government has come to power, it has been playing saffron politics. The Tricolour should be respected and national harmony should be promoted. This government wants to saffronise everything,” Khan stated.

As per the rules of the International Cricket Council (ICC), barring hosts England, every other participating team in the mega event had to have provisions for different coloured kits. The ICC mentioned that options were given to the BCCI and the world’s richest cricket board chose what went best with their colour combination.

Also read – ICC World Cup 2019 – Match 34: WI vs IND – India Predicted Playing XI

“For televised ICC events all participating teams will be required to provide for two different coloured kits, except for the host country who has a preference in the choice of colour and may, if it chooses to do so, provide only one coloured kit to be worn in all matches throughout the event. In advance of the event the teams will be notified which coloured kit will be worn in each match,” the ICC mentioned in a media release.