Uma Bharti rejects BCCI proposal to play in Sharjah

Indian Sports Minister Uma Bharti on Saturday rejected the proposal of the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the Indian team's participation in a triangular series involving Pakistan and Bangladesh in Sharjah from February 8 to 11 to mobilise funds for the Gujarat earthquake victims.

However, she welcomed the board's intention which was to collect aid for the quake victims. "I am happy with the BCCI's suggestion that Rs 20 crore can be raised through the Sharjah matches. But Rs 200 crore can be raised if our team plays matches with the film stars in the country," she told PTI in Madurai.

Bharti's stand in line with the government's decision not to have any sporting links with Pakistan in the aftermath of Kargil assumes significance in the context of Pakistan's military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf making a telephone call to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to convey sympathy for the loss of life and devastation in Gujarat.

Board secretary Jaywant Lele had yesterday announced that the Government had given the 'go ahead' for the tour and said the official communication from the concerned ministry would be received on February 5.The idea to play in Sharjah was first mooted by the Finance Committee of the Asian Cricket Council at its meeting in Lahore on February 1.

Later, Bharti told reporters in Chennai that this was her view and she had conveyed it to the External Affairs Ministry from which she was yet to get a reply.

"If they want to organise matches in aid of the Gujarat earthquake victims, they can do it in other ways in India itself. There is no need to play match against Pakistan in Sharjah or anywhere in the world," Bharati, who was in Madurai enroute to Delhi after a visit to Rameswaram, said.

Bharati said she had conveyed her views to the BCCI through the secretary of the Youth Affairs and Sports Department. She said her ministry could act as a nodal agency to help the BCCI to organise matches between cricketers like Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar with film stars including Hrithik Roshan, and suggested that aidmatches could be held at four venues in the country. They could be staged at a venue each in Punjab, Bhopal, the Northeast and the South.

Indians were more generous and the BCCI could collect much more than what they could mobilise outside the country. People would know that they were going to help the quake victims, she added.

Asked why the Government has not reviewed its stand vis-a-vis cricket ties between India and Pakistan, she said it was a bilateral issue and only the External Affairs Ministry could decide.

"Now the situation is such that the cricket team cannot be allowed to go to Sharjah," she added. "I am nobody to review the situation. Whatever I do, I do in consultation with the Foreign Minister. The External Affairs Ministry also felt there should not be matches between India and Pakistan," the Minister added.

Bharati said her personal view was also that right now India should not play any match with Pakistan. Asked if she would impress upon the External Affairs Ministry to revive the matches, she said "If they ask my personal view I will give it to them."

Asked when the External Affairs Ministry would allow the Indian cricket team to play with Pakistan, she said "I can't say nor I can dictate them."

Asked if she would press for a blanket ban on any sporting ties with Pakistan, she said: "I will not do that because sport is played for spirit. But there is too much of craze in cricket and now is not the situation for the two countries to play."