After the stunning silence from Indian cricketers over women wrestlers’ protest against sexual harassment by Wrestling Federation of India chief, the World Cup 1983 winning team has come out in support of the protesting athletes.

They issued a joint statement on Friday condemning the way protesting wrestlers were manhandled by Delhi Police on May 28. The statement has been put out in the name of current BCCI boss Roger Binny, veteran cricketers Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, K Srikkanth, Syed Kirmani, Yashpal Sharma (now deceased), Madan Lal, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Sandeep Patil and Kirti Azad. Kapil Dev said the statement on the wrestlers is not an individual thing but the whole of the 1983 team stands by it.

The veteran cricketers said they were concerned by the fact that the wrestlers were going to immerse their hard-earned Olympic medals into the Ganga. They were shocked that the situation has come to such a pass that wrestlers are thinking of dumping their hard-earned medals into the Ganga because their medals were a result of years of effort, sacrifice, determination, and grit. The cricketers were unanimous that those medals don’t belong to the agitated wrestlers alone but with the nation’s pride and joy. They said they are distressed and disturbed at the unusual visuals of champion wrestlers being manhandled.

The protest has also been heartbreaking, the statement said, since it wrestlers who should be on the practice mat are out on the roads. The 1983 team added they are not in favour throwing their medals away because earning medals isn’t easy and urged the Government to sort out the issue as soon as possible.

Champion wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia have been protesting in Delhi, demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers. Last Tuesday, they went to Haridwar to immerse their medals in the Ganga but changed plans with the intervention of farmer’s leaders. 

Under the leadership of Kapil Dev, the Indian cricket team won the country’s first World Cup trophy in 1983 beating the then cricketing superpower, the West Indies.

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