Indian captain Virat Kohli rubbished allegations made by former wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer, in which he had stated that the Indian selectors were seen getting tea for Anushka Sharma during this year’s World Cup in June-July.
Kohli stated that Sharma was in the family box for a game, where no selectors were present. After Engineer had made the remark, the Bollywood actress had taken to social media and bashed out at him, saying that she would not allow her name to be dragged into controversies pertaining to Indian cricket. Kohli echoed his wife’s sentiments and added that as she is successful, she is an easy scapegoat.
“She (Anushka Sharma) came for 1 World Cup game against Sri Lanka and the family box and the selector box was different, and there was no selector in that box. She came for 1 game with two friends,” Kohli said during an interview with India Today.
“As I said, she is known, she’s been successful at a very high level so when people take her name, it gets noticed,” the India captain added.
Engineer had earlier mentioned that the current selection committee, led by MSK Prasad and also comprising of Devang Gandhi, Sharandeep Singh, Jatin Paranjpe andd Gagan Khode is a “mickey mouse” committee that has made some questionable selections in their tenure.
“We have got a Mickey Mouse selection committee. Virat Kohli has a major impact (in the process) which is very good. But how are the selectors qualified?
“Between them, have they played about 10-12 Test matches. I didn’t even know one of the selectors during the World Cup and I asked him ‘who the hell he was’, because he was wearing the India blazer and he said he was one of the selectors.
“All they were doing was getting Anushka Sharma (Kohli’s wife) cups of tea. I feel people with the stature of Dilip Vengsarkar should be in the selection committee,” Engineer had claimed.
After Sharma called Engineer’s claims as “ill intended lies”, the former cricketer remarked that his lines were in jest.
Anushka has often been in the firing line of criticism due to her association with Kohli. When the latter was in the middle of a rough patch in the 2015 World Cup, her presence at the ground was blamed. The duo tied the knot in December 2017.
