Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer, who recently quit as Uttarakhand coach owing to a dispute with the state association, on Wednesday rejected allegations by the body's officials that he tried to force religion-based selections in the team. The 42-year-old, who played 31 Tests for India and is a celebrated name in domestic cricket, said the charge that he favoured Muslim players, which was levelled by Cricket Association of Uttarakhand secretary Mahim Verma in a media report, had caused him immense pain. Soon after Jaffer slammed the allegations, several cricketers have come out in support of the under-fire cricketer. Speaking to Lokmat Times, Faiz Fazal – who led Vidarbha to title triumphs in two Ranji as well as two Irani Trophy, said that he was shocked at the allegations as Jaffer was like a big brother to every member of the Vidarbha squad. “It’s very shocking. I have played four seasons with him. He is just like a big brother to every Vidarbha player. He is true gentleman. I have never found anything wrong in his conduct of behaviour with each player,” Fazal said.
Vidarbha glovesman Akshay Wadkar went on to add that deserving players’ performance was the only criteria for selection in the team for Jaffer and not religious bias. “Jaffer has always given first priority to the deserving players and the performances. I don’t think he will select the players on religion basis. In fact he equally treated each player when he was playing with us. Such allegations are shocking for us,” Wadkar added. In a virtual press conference, Jaffer said that the allegations levelled upon him were very sad. While Verma accused that Jaffer wanted to make Iqbal Abdullah the captain, the latter said he was in favour of appointing Jay Bista as the captain. "They levelled an allegation that I am in favour of Iqbal Abdulla, I wanted to make Iqbal Abdulla as the captain, which is absolutely wrong," he asserted. I was going to make Jay Bista the captain, but Rizwan Shamshad and the other selectors suggested that you make Iqbal the captain? he is senior player, has played IPL and is much older...I agreed to their suggestion. "On allegations of bringing Maulvis (Muslim religious scholars) to the team's training, Jaffer said, “First of all they said the Maulavis came there in a bio-bubble and we offered Namaz. Let me tell you one thing, the Maulavi, Maulana, who came on two or three Fridays during the camp in Dehradun, I had not called him. ”The 42-year-old, who played 31 Tests for India. He is also currently the batting coach of Kings XI Punjab.
