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'Hurt' Muthiah rebuts Azhar's remarks
Jan 17, 2001, 19:45 Hrs (IST)

Chennai: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), whose Disciplinary Committee is meeting here on Thursday to discuss the case of off spinner Nikhil Chopra, tainted in the match-fixing scandal, on Wednesday rebutted former Captain Mohammed Azharuddin's remarks about President A C Muthiah.

In a statement here issued by Dr Muthiah's spokesman, the BCCI said, Mr Muthiah was pained and anguished to read Azharuddin's accusation that he (Dr Muthiah) was opposed to his candidature as captain.

The statement said Dr Muthiah was nowhere in the picture as far as BCCI was concerned when the captaincy of Azharuddin was being proposed and discussed in 1990. Dr Muthiah had joined the Board of BCCI Working Committee only in 1997 and was elected as vice-president in the year 1998 at Kolkata, the statement said.

Even when Azharuddin was reappointed as captain in 1998, Dr Muthiah had totally denied that he had opposed the nomination in any fora.

As is well known, Dr Muthiah is a staunch believer in hardcore professionalism in administrative matters. He had always maintained and believed that selecting captain for the team was the job of the selection committee and declared that he saw no role whatsoever for him in the process, the statement said.

UNI