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Azhar lashes out at former cricketers, media

Former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin on Friday lashed out at Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Manoj Prabhakar, charging them with carrying out a "vilification campaign" to dislodge him and create antipathy in the minds of people.

Giving a new dimension to the match-fixing controversy, Azhar said he is being victimised because he belongs to a minority community. He accused the former India cricketers of ''targeting and victimising'' him to settle ''personal grudges'', and threatened to sue them.

''They can't stand the idea that a person from a minority community should have been the skipper of the Indian team for almost a decade," he said.

Appealing to the public not to get swayed by the misinformation campaign against him, Azhar said his lawyers, led by Mahesh Jethmalani, were considering the feasibility of legal proceedings against Gavaskar, Shastri, Prabhakar, Anirudh Behl of tehelka.com and publications like India Today, Outlook and others, for bringing disrepute to him.

Prabhakar's clandestinely produced videotapes through tehelka.com recently saw present and past cricketers come out with startling disclosures.

Denying that he had disclosed Rs.160 million under the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme, he stated that his lawyers are in the process of seeking the permission of the government to prosecute income-tax official Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, who made the allegation that it was he who disclosed the said amount.

He said legal action was also being contemplated against American fast food giant McDonald's for putting up a nationwide hoarding, which read: ''Azhar ne pucca khaya!''

He denied Shastri's allegation that he had purchased a watch for Rs 600,000 from a businessman, named Bhutani, saying it was a figment of Shastri's imagination. He pointed out that there was even a denial from the businessman himself.

He also denied having accumulated properties and assets worth Rs 1.5 billion and challenged all those who made the ''derogatory remarks'' to declare their assets publicly.

The 37-year-old cricketer said he is the only player to have contributed Rs 500,000 (half the remuneration he received for the 1999 World Cup) to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, which he handed over personally to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the welfare of families of those who died in the Kargil conflict.

Azharuddin concluded by accusing the press of being biased, and asked why the media was quiet on the issue of 16 bookies attending a cricketer's wedding and presenting a very expensive necklace to his wife.

Similarly, he said, the press remained silent when cash and foreign exchange was found in the locker of another former India captain. ''Why can't the press be fair? Why are all these matters being hushed up.''

UNI