- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
At a time when a number of India’s renowned wrestlers were protesting against the chief of the country’s wrestling federation for allegedly harassing at least seven female wrestlers including a minor sexually, former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly made a remark on the matter which did not go down well with many fans.
On Friday (5), Ganguly, who was the chief of India’s cricket board till last October, was asked about his opinion on the ongoing protest in Delhi and he refused to get into the matter saying he didn’t know what was happening and wanted the wrestlers to fight their own battle.
“Let them fight their battle. I don’t know what’s happening there, I just read in the newspapers. In the sports world, I realised one thing that you don’t talk about things you don’t have complete knowledge of,” the 50-year-old said in an event.
VIDEO | "Let them fight their battle. I don't know what's happening there, I just read in the newspapers. In the sports world, I realised one thing that you don't talk about things you don't have complete knowledge of," says @SGanguly99 on wrestlers' protest. pic.twitter.com/NjsaipIkyr
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 5, 2023
“So, I hope it gets resolved. The wrestlers have won a lot of medals and brought accolades to the country. Hopefully, it will be resolved,” the former batter added.
Many Twitter users were not impressed with Ganguly’s response and criticised him for not supporting the protesters. He was also accused of playing it “safe”.
He knows the outcome of speaking in favour of wrestlers …
— Pawan Shukla (@Shukla8175) May 5, 2023
Sorry dada @SGanguly99 ..you have a spine..use it.. I am your big fan.. but can't digest this.
— Debipada Nanda (@debipadan) May 5, 2023
and u don't want get the necessary knowledge?
— Vishweshwar Raste (@VMRaste) May 5, 2023
To think that this man dared the Brits at their home of cricket really feels from a different alternate realm. What have the giants reduced to! Or they were always this ,just we dreamt them to be otherwise.
— Rajesh Roy (@rajeshroy1929) May 5, 2023
Very irresponsible statement by Saurav.
Asking for a free and fair probe into the allegations – is all our wrestlers are asking for.
Every Indian should support our athletes.
??
— Simon Robin (@simon_robin) May 5, 2023
A number of India’s past and present sportspersons have come out in solidarity with the protesting wrestlers, some of whom have won medals at the Olympic Games, and they include former India cricket captain Kapil Dev, Olympic gold-winning athlete Niraj Chopra and shooter Abhinav Bindra, among others.
On Wednesday (3) night, the protesters had a scuffle with officers of Delhi Police who allegedly manhandled them and the wrestlers turned emotional over the treatment and also said they were ready to return their medals and awards to the government.
The chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, is also a parliamentarian of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He denied all allegations against him and said he would resign only if prime minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda or the party asked him to.
