Mumbai, May 26 (IANS) Six Indian cricketers Wednesday apologised to the Indian cricket board for their involvement in a pub brawl in St.Lucia, West Indies, after the team’s exit from the World Twenty20.
Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma e-mailed their apology to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary N.Srinivasan while Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Piyush Chawla met a senior board official and said that in future they would restrain themeselves from involving in any such incident.
In an e-mail to the BCCI secretary, Jadeja wrote: ‘I very much regret that the board has to send me a notice for the incident in the West Indies, and please accept my apology. I beg to inform you that I had gone to the restaurant (pub) for dinner along with other Indian team members. Some other guests which I presume were (of) Indian origin of USA also come to the restaurant and on seeing us they started abusing us, this may be because they were unhappy with our poor performance. We requested them not to abuse us but they did not stop despite of our repeated request. No way I was involved in any ugly brawl and I went to the pub only to have dinner with my teammates.’
Jadeja added: ‘If the board still thinks that I have brought any disrespect to the game of cricket or our board and our country, I once again sincerely tender my unconditional apology and assure you that I will take care that in future no way my name will be involved in any such incident.’
Twitter Gate: Congress will take action against Tharoor at the appropriate time: Tewari
New Delhi, Sep.18 (ANI): The Congress party on Friday said it would take appropriate action against Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor for his “cattle class” comments through the medium of Twitter at the appropriate time.
Addressing a party news conference in the capital, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said: “We will take appropriate action (against Mr. Tharoor) at the appropriate time.
Tewari further said that action against Tharoor was not ruled out.
He also justified Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s statement on Thursday seeking Tharoor’s resignation for what he called “irresponsible” comments on the social networking site Twitter.
“It was unfortunate and unbecoming on his part to make such comments. In my view he should tender his resignation as Minister,” Gehlot had said.
“To make such irreverent comments is all the more despicable when one is holding a responsible position as that of the Minister of State for External Affairs,” Gehlot told journalists at his official residence here after a “Roza Iftar” party on Thursday evening.
Gehlot had termed Tharoor’s references posted on the site such as “cattle class” and “holy cows” as unacceptable in Indian politics.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan also said Tharoor had no right to continue in the Union Cabinet.
“I believe that in a democracy, people are God. To refer to them as ‘cattle’ is an insult to them. And I believe that such a person has no right to be a Union minister,” he told reporters.
Tharoor, who is on an official visit to Liberia, had earlier apologized through the Twitter medium, saying he was “sorry” for hurting any sentiments and that his words had been misunderstood.
“To those hurt by the belief that my repeating the phrase showed contempt: sorry. It’s a silly expression, but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle. Many have misunderstood,” Tharoor said.
The minister said that he had learned belatedly of the fuss “over my tweet and pointed out that the phrase “cattle class” was used in the query, which he just repeated. (ANI)