The former Indian wicketkeeper, Farokh Engineer, has said that his comment on Anushka Sharma and the Indian selectors was taken out of context and he didn’t actually mean what it was made out to be.
All hell broke loose yesterday after Farokh revealed that he saw the Indian selectors serving tea to Anushka during the World Cup.
Anushka was heavily criticized on social media and she eventually had to release a statement in the evening defending herself and clarifying that she was not in the “selectors’ box” during the World Cup.
Anushka also stressed that she was being targeted with ill-intentions and while she had chosen to keep quiet in the past, her silence should not be taken as her weakness.
Farokh talked to Republic TV after Anushka released her statement on Instagram and the 82-year old clarified that he was never taking a potshot at Anushka.
According to Farokh, while he was talking about the lack of qualification of the Indian selectors, he used that “tea remark” as a jest, but people picked on that and started having a go at Anushka.
Calling Anushka a “lovely girl”, Farokh said that he has no issues with her or with the Indian captain Virat Kohli or anyone in the Indian team management.
“I just said it in a jest. Poor Anushka has been dragged into it, she is a lovely girl. Virat Kohli is a brilliant captain and coach Ravi Shastri is extremely good. The entire matter is being blown up unnecessarily.”, Farokh told Republic TV.
Farokh Engineer played 46 test matches for India in the 60s and the 70s and scored 2611 runs at an average of 31.08. He scored 2 hundreds and 16 fifties in a career spanned across 15 years.
Farokh also played 5 ODIs for India, scoring 114 runs at an average of 38.
