Members of India’s national cricket team continued their celebrations of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup victory by visiting the Sri Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Mumbai on Saturday, even as their previous visit to the temple sparked a controversy following former cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad’s comments.The head coach Gautam Gambhir And captain Surya Kumar Yadav is with the ICC chairman. Jay Shah He had earlier visited the temple in Ahmedabad with the trophy after the win and offered pooja despite the controversy surrounding the earlier visit.Keerthi Azad questioned going to the temple.The debate started when Kirti Azad criticized the team’s decision to take the trophy to the temple, saying that the World Cup win belongs to all Indians, regardless of religion.“140 crore people were excited to see Team India, which includes people of all religions, win. A player or a sport does not belong to any religion or caste but only to sport,” Azad said. “Why not a mosque? Why not a church? Why not a Gurudwara? The trophy belongs to 1.4 billion Indians of every religion, not the victory lap of any one religion,” he added. Harbhajan Singh Criticizes Azad’s remarks.Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh strongly criticized Azad’s comments, accusing him of unnecessarily politicizing the issue.Harbhajan said, “It is ridiculous that someone is playing politics for taking the trophy to the temple of the players. Keerthy himself is a former cricketer, so I did not expect such a thing from him. Maybe he is giving more priority to politics and has forgotten that he is a sportsman.” “I was expecting more because when such a big thing is done, the reward should be more. But kudos to the team for showing everyone how powerful India is,” he added.Gambhir also defended the team’s celebration.Gautam Gambhir also defended the team’s actions, saying the controversy was unnecessary and threatened to overshadow the achievements of the players.“It’s not even worth answering that question. It’s a big moment for the whole country and we should celebrate the World Cup winners,” Gambhir said in a chat with ANI.“If you want to diminish the achievements of these 15 players and their efforts, tomorrow anyone can make any statement and we will start taking it seriously. It is not fair to the boys.”“The boys have been under a lot of pressure, if you make statements like that today you are disrespecting your own players and your team.”Players put aside conflicts.Meanwhile, Indian batsman Ishan Kishan dismissed questions surrounding the controversy and urged the media to focus on the team’s historic success.“Winning the World Cup is a big thing. You guys should ask good questions. What can I say about what Keerti Azad said? Please ask good questions so it’s enjoyable,” Kishan said.
