With the protests against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in full flow, there is a lot of support garnered for the Olympic medal-winning grapplers at the Jantar Mantar. While the outcry against their issues continues to increase, one branch of sports in India are yet to show their support — The Indian cricket stratosphere.
The most famous cricketer, former or current, to open their mouth on the issues of the wrestlers, was the 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, who put a special message on his Instagram story that read, “Will they ever get justice?”
And now, Vinesh Phogat has questioned the integrity of the cricket fraternity in an interview with the Indian Express. "The entire country worships cricket but not even a single cricketer has spoken up. We aren’t saying that you speak in our favour, but at least put up a neutral message and say there should be justice for whichever party. This is what pains me… Be it cricketers, badminton players, athletics, boxing…” The Indian Express quoted the World Championship medalist as saying in an interview.
She cited times the cricketers spoke up in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and said, “It’s not like we don’t have big athletes in our country. There are cricketers… During the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, they showed their support. Don’t we deserve even that much?”
“You do come forward to congratulate us when we win something. Even the cricketers tweet when that happens. Abhi kya ho gaya? (What has happened now?) Are you so afraid of the system? Or maybe there’s something fishy going on there too? (Unke daal mein bhi kaala hai, yeh maan ke chale hum?),” she said.
Vinesh was also not happy with the comments of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha on the wrestler's protest. She said, “We live as per the constitution and are independent citizens. We can go anywhere. If we are sitting out in the streets, there must be some reason, a reason that nobody listened to us, be it IOA or sports ministry. Her saying this is insensitive. I even called her, but she did not pick up my phone.”
"Wrestlers staging protest on streets amounts to indiscipline. It is tarnishing the image of India," Usha told reporters after IOA's Executive Committee meeting.
A three-member adhoc committee comprising of Arjuna Awardee shooter Suma Shirur, Bhupendra Singh Bajwa and retired High Court judge (name not revealed yet) has been formed to conduct WFI elections.
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