Devil's Advocate: Team India not racist, says Pawar

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How does Union Agriculture Minister and BCCI chief Sharad Pawar respond to Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray saying that he is prime ministerial material and criticism of the way he handled the Harbhajan Singh controversy? These are the issues I will raise with him today.

Karan Thapar: There is increasing criticism that the BCCI and perhaps you personally as president have not handled the issue as effectively as you should have. On reflection, do you think you could have handled it better?

Sharad Pawar: No, in fact the whole country is saying that we handled it in a better way. We protected the interest of the country, (we) protected the prestige of the players. The main thing was we can accept anything, but it is very difficult to digest that Indian player - if anybody calls him a racist.

(India is) the country, which has always fought against racism. Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, started his movement in South Africa against racism and from there the rest of India took inspiration. So this (racism allegation) is not just acceptable.

Karan Thapar: Let us examine the criticism. To begin with was it fitting that you, as President of BCCI, should have said that if the verdict in the appeal that you yourself lodged didn't go in your favour you would call back the team from Australia?

Sharad Pawar: I have not said that exactly but I did say that it would be difficult for our players to play with the charge that they are racist.

Karan Thapar: This is what you said. The Indian Express quoted you on January 29: "The Indian board has taken a decision that if the charges are not dropped then the team would come back to India." And (BCCI official) Lalit Modi said the same thing as well.

Sharad Pawar: Lalit might have said but the BCCI never decided that. The BCCI board has authorised me to take appropriate action. I don't know what exactly appeared in the media.

Karan Thapar: The media was wrong, was it?

Sharad Pawar: No, I don't say that. I did say it would be difficult for us to digest a charge of (being) racist and play on the ground.

Karan Thapar: Many people concluded that when the board took this decision what you were doing was throwing your financial weight around. Some people even felt that the Indian cricket board was attempting to blackmail the ICC and Cricket Australia.

Sharad Pawar: Where does the question of blackmailing come up? We are not blackmailing anybody. How will we be able to blackmail anybody - where is the question of finances? I can't understand why again and again this issue of finances is raised.

It is very funny in our country. When the entire episode - the controversy - started the media was attacking BCCI left and right, saying they are not taking (the team's) side. Now when the entire issue has been resolved amicably and we got a real good decision from the judge, so immediately certain sections in the media started saying 'BCCI bulldozed', this and that.