Muthiah refutes Azharuddin's charges

The president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India AC Muthiah on Wednesday strongly refuted the "unfounded outbursts of Md Azharuddin" during the recent interview the former Indian captain gave a news weekly.

In a statement released in Chennai, Muthiah said he was anguished to note Azharuddin's allegation in which he had stated: "When I was made captain, some people in the BCCI were unhappy about my selection. The present BCCI president AC Muthiah opposed my candidature."

Muthiah pointed out that he was nowhere in the picture as far as the BCCI was concerned when the captaincy of Azharuddin was being proposed and discussed in 1990 as Muthiah joined the board as a working committee member only in 1997 and was duly elected as vice president at Calcutta in 1998. Even when Azharuddin was re-appointed as captain of the Indian team in 1998, Muthiah totally denied that he opposed the nomination of Azharuddin in any forum.

In his statement, Muthiah concludes that he is a staunch believer in hardcore professionalism in administrative matters and he has always maintained and believed that selecting the captain of the team was the job of the selection committee. He declares that he saw no role whatsoever in him in the process.