Players explain their position in pub brawl incident

Published>Thu, May 20 10 07:16 PM

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) Four of the six Indian players, who were asked by the Indian Cricket board why action should not be taken against them for their role in the St Lucia pub incident in the West Indies, say they only reacted when the fans got abusive.

The four either met a senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official individually or talked to him on phone to protest their innocence.

'Going by what they graphically described to me, the incident absolves them of wrongdoing, though it is for the BCCI President Shashank Manohar to take a final call,' the official told IANS.

The official, however, said the six players -- Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja -- should explain their conduct as they have been given an opportunity to do so.

'The only hitch is that the team manager (Ranjib Biswal) has told the BCCI chief about the incident and so the board had to act by issuing the players the show-cause notice,' he said.

The BCCI Tuesday issued show-cause notice to the players for their alleged involvement in a pub brawl May 11, hours after India crashed out of the World Twenty20 losing their Super Eights match against Sri Lanka. The players have been given seven days to respond to the notice.

The show-cause notice was served by secretary N. Srinivasan at the behest of BCCI president Shashank Manohar.

According to reports, the brawl started after the Indian cricketers were taunted by some fans for their failure to reach the semi-finals and the cricketers reacted strongly.

Both Yuvraj and Nehra denied the brawl ever took place but team manager Biswal, seeking to play down the incident, said there was 'only an altercation' at the pub.

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