WC 2019: Congress, SP oppose orange jerseys for team India

The International Cricket of Council had introduced a new rule before the commencement of the World cup 2019, asking teams to sport home and away jerseys in the tournament

The Congress and Samajwadi Party on Wednesday raised objections over the orange jerseys that will likely be donned by Virat-led team India in their World Cup match against England on June 30. The International Cricket of Council (ICC) had introduced a new rule before the commencement of the World cup 2019, asking teams to sport home and away jerseys in the tournament. "Modi ji wants to saffronise the entire country. A Muslim was the one who designed the Indian Tricolour. There are other colours in the Tricolour, why choose only orange? It will be better if their jersey is based on the Tricolour," India Today quoted SP MLA in Maharashtra Assembly Abu Asim Azmi as saying. "Ever since the Modi government has come to power, it has been playing saffron politics. The Tricolour should be respected and national harmony should be promoted. This government wants to saffronise everything," Congress MLA Naseem Khan further said in the Assembly. On the other hand, an ICC source told ANI that colour options were given to BCCI and they chose what they felt went best with the colour combination. The whole idea is to be different as England also wears a same shade of blue as India. The design is taken from India’s old T20 jersey which had orange in it. "Colour options were given to BCCI and they chose the colour combination that looked the best to them. The whole idea is to be different from blue as England also wears the same shade of blue as India," the ICC source told ANI. "Also, the design (orange) is taken from India's old T20 jersey, which had orange in it. This jersey was designed from something that already existed and not something completely new that fans don't identify with," the source further said. The ICC rule reads: "For televised ICC events all participating teams will be required to provide for two different coloured kits, except for the host country who has a preference in the choice of colour and may, if it chooses to do so, provide only one coloured kit to be worn in all matches throughout the event. In advance of the event the teams will be notified which coloured kit will be worn in each match." Thus, South Africa, which generally sports green jersey with yellow shade, wore the reverse, which was dominated by yellow with patches of green in the team's match against Bangladesh. Afghanistan, which generally sports a blue jersey, wore one with more areas of red added to blue.