Dungarpur comes out in support of Azhar

MUMBAI, November 15: Former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Raj Singh Dungarpur on Wednesday supported former skipper Mohammed Azharuddin in his reluctance to meet BCCI investigator K Madhavan in the match-fixing episode.

“Why should he or any cricketer meet him,” Raj Singh made a shocking statement to the newsmen here adding that Azharuddin has a very good lawyer and he knows he will be exonerated in court.

While making the statement he gestured with his two fingers in the air. “I hope all the cricketers are exonerated,” he further said which could not only be termed as defiance of BCCI’s own decision to have Madhavan reinvestigate the CBI findings of match-fixing, but also against the grain of whole cricketing World’s thinking. Projecting his fondness for Azharuddin and another tainted player Ajay Jadeja, he strongly indicated that the cricketers were not involved in match fixing and blamed `the Delhi press’ for hounding them. Raj Singh, who during his days as the chairman of the selection committee, was very sensitive to critisism, himself blasted current chairman Chandu Borde for prefering older players to youth and agreed with a reporter’s opinion that a selector connected with an Academy should not be there.