New Delhi: Three Indian players have pulled out of the upcoming World Championship of Legends (WCL) match against Pakistan, after facing heavy criticism from fans. Several reports suggest that Harbhajan Singh, Yusuf Pathan and Irfan Pathan have made the decision considering the political tensions between both the countries after the Pahalgam attack.
India and Pakistan don’t play bilateral matches against each other, and there were calls to end all multi-national event matches between the two after the Pahalgam attack that saw several Indian lives lost.
The current Team India head coach, Gautam Gambhir, asked the country to cut all relations, bilateral or not, with the neighbors. Whereas, the India Champions skipper Yuvraj Singh, batter Shikhar Dhawan were engaged in social media wars with the likes of Shahid Afridi after the Operation Sindoor.
Spinner Harbhajan Singh also wrote on social media at that time, “My heart goes out to family members of all those who lost their lives in the dastardly attack. This can’t be forgiven,”.
The same cricketers are now facing heavy backlash from the Indian fans after it was revealed that Afridi will be part of the Pakistan team, which is set to face India. According to reports, other Indian players might also pull out from the game against Pakistan.
What is WCL?
India, Pakistan, South Africa, England, Australia and the West Indies participate in the World Championship of Legends, which is sanctioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board. The league is co-owned by the Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan and rapper Harshit Tomar.
Indian squad for WCL
Shikhar Dhawan, Robin Uthappa (WK), Ambati Rayudu, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh (C), Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Stuart Binny, Vinay Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Siddarth Kaul, Abhimanyu Mithun and Varun Aaron.