The father of Indian women’s cricket team’s star batsman Jemimah Rodriguez, who is embroiled in controversies, has presented her side for the first time on the allegations of religious conversion. Jemima’s father Ivan Rodriguez has been accused of organizing religious conversion programs at Khar Gymkhana Cricket Club in Mumbai. On Friday, October 25, Rodriguez completely rejected these allegations, saying that he had only organized prayer meetings and he was extremely saddened and disappointed by such false allegations. Just a few days ago, a report had claimed that several people, including Ivan Rodriguez, had rented the conference hall of Khar Gymkhana and were running religious conversion programs here.
followed the rules
These allegations were made against Ivan Rodriguez by many officials of the club itself but the President of Khar Gymkhana also found them wrong. He had said that the officials made such allegations in view of the upcoming elections. Due to these allegations, Jemima’s membership was cancelled, with the help of which her father had organized these events in the club. Ivan Rodriguez issued a statement on his social media account on Friday and offered his own clarification. He told that he has been organizing prayer meetings at Khar Gymkhana since April 2023 and all this was done keeping in mind and within the procedures and rules of the club.
No religious conversion, just prayer meetings
Ivan Rodriguez also said in his clarification that complete information about all these programs was given to the officials of Khar Gymkhana. In his statement, Rodriguez further said that these prayer meetings were for everyone and anyone could participate in them, but in no way were they talked about religious conversion, as are the claims being made in the media. He also said that as soon as he was asked by Gymkhana to stop these meetings, he immediately agreed and stopped them. Also, whatever difference there was in the fixed rates for members and guests was also paid immediately.
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Jemima didn’t say anything
Jemima’s father described himself as a law-abiding citizen and said that he is happy that he gets a chance to practice his religion without troubling anyone. Despite this, he described the allegations as sad and said that he always wants the well-being of everyone. After this whole incident, star batsman Jemima is also being called good and bad on social media and many of her old videos of prayer meetings are also being shared. However, the Indian batsman has maintained silence amid this entire controversy and is only concentrating on her game. On October 24 itself, he took part in the first ODI match played between India and New Zealand.
