Wasim Jaffer refutes allegations of communal bias in selection as Uttarakhand coach

Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer recently resigned from his position as the Uttarakhand cricket coach after he was accused of religion-based selections in the team. His resignation came after his disputes with the state association. The association’s secretary said in a media report that Jaffer favoured Muslim players like Iqbal Abdulla and was pushing to make him the captain.

“…jo communal angle lagaya (the communal angle that has been brought up), that is very, very sad,” PTI quoted Jaffer as saying in a virtual press conference.

“They levelled an allegation that I am in favour of Iqbal Abdulla, I wanted to make Iqbal Abdulla as the captain, which is absolutely wrong,” he asserted.

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Iqbal Abdulla, the 31-year-old player in the Uttarakhand team has played in the IPL but has not played for India yet.

Jaffer, 42, quit on Tuesday saying that the reason for his decision was the “interference and bias of selectors and the association’s secretary for non-deserving players” as the reason

Jaffer has also been accused of bringing Maulvis, Muslim religious scholars, to the team’s training. Addressing that allegation, he dismissed it by saying that he did not bring the Maulvi in Dehradun.

“First of all, they said the Maulavis came there in a bio-bubble and we offered Namaz. Let me tell you one thing, the Maulavi, Maulana, who came on two or three Fridays during the camp in Dehradun, I had not called him.

“It was Iqbal Abdulla (Uttarakhand player) who sought mine and the manager’s permission only for the Friday prayer,”

Jaffer said that he did not understand why the prayers that took place only after the team’s training had become an issue.

“While we do our daily prayers in the room, the Friday prayers have to be done in a gathering so he thought it would be better if someone comes over to facilitate…And we did the namaz in the dressing room for five minutes after the nets.

“If I was communal, I could have adjusted the practice timings according to our prayer timings but that’s not the way I am,” he added.

“…what is a big thing in it, I don’t understand.”

Jaffer had recently signed a one-year-contract with CAU in June 2020, when he was appointed as the coach of the state team.

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The former Indian cricket player has played 31 Test Matches for India and is a celebrated name in domestic cricket. Under his mentorship, Uttarakhand won one of their five matches in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.