CAB stands firm, to keep Pakistan players' pictures at Eden Gardens

KOLKATA: The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) refused to yield to pressure and remove photographs of former Pakistan cricketers displayed at the Eden Gardens gallery despite a Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) demonstration at its headquarters on Saturday afternoon.

The state BJP's youth wing demanded that the pictures of Imran Khan and other former Pakistan stars be pulled down - as a mark of protest against the Pulwama terror attack - and tried to enter the Eden Gardens Club House, when they were blocked and arrested by cops.

Pakistan PM and former captain Khan's picture, holding aloft the 1992 World Cup is displayed prominently at the B C Roy Club House lobby. Pictures of other legendary Pakistan cricketers, like Wasim Akram, Intikhab Alam and Rameez Raja, too, adorn the walls of the Club House along with portraits of scores of other cricket stars. Continuing anti-Pakistan protests have forced the Board for Control of Cricket in India and several affiliated units to remove photographs of Pakistani cricket stars displayed at their premises.


More than 60 BJYM members assembled in front of Eden Gardens on Saturday afternoon, shouting anti-Pakistan slogans and flaying the CAB for continuing to "patronise" Pakistani cricketers. The agitators, after demonstrating for an hour, tried to enter the Club House but were foiled by a police contingent posted there since early morning. Protesters then blocked Kingsway, leading to their arrest; they were bundled into police vans and ferried to Lalbazar.

CAB president and former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who told a TV channel two days back that India should not have sporting ties with Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack, refused to make any further comment on Saturday's incident. "I really don't have anything to say on this," he said on Saturday evening. Kolkata has always welcomed Pakistan cricketers with warmth and fanfare. The CAB had stepped in to host a India-Pakistan World Cup T20 group league match in 2016 when it had to be rescheduled following security issues in Dharamsala, which was originally allotted the high-voltage clash.

Ganguly on Saturday backed India skipper Virat Kohli's view that Indian cricketers would stick to what the nation wanted and what the BCCI decided (on the issue of not playing Pakistan in the forthcoming World Cup in the UK). Asked to comment on Sachin Tendulkar's statement that he would hate to give two points to Pakistan (in case India did not play Pakistan), Ganguly said: "I simply want India to win the World Cup."

Ganguly refused to react to former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad's recent provocative statement. "I think he (Ganguly ) wants to run for elections or wants to become the chief minister," Miandad had said. Ganguly, however, laughed it away: "I have no reaction to his comment. I enjoyed watching him bat. He was a fantastic player for Pakistan."