Players' presence at charity match raises eyebrows

The presence of three members of India's one-day squad - the captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh - at a private function in a Maharashtra town on Saturday has raised eyebrows over its clear departure from practice. The three cricketers attended, with the permission of the BCCI, the inauguration of a private cricket academy in Bhandara while the rest of the squad was in Indore for the second ODI in the series against England.

There were also concerns over their security. PTI reported the cricketers played with locals, resulting in crowd surges.

The academy is named after the father of union civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who belongs to the same political party as Sharad Pawar, the former BCCI president.

The three players left the team soon after the 158-run win in Rajkot on Friday but BCCI officials said they had "no issues" with it. "Yes, they had BCCI permission. Since they were attending a cricket game we had no issues and even the players had no issues," Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's chief administrative officer, said.

"There is nothing wrong in attending such a programme," Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI's finance committee chairman, told PTI. "It was for a charitable cause. They had taken prior permission and enough security measures were in place. The academy is for rural children and it should not be blown out of proportion since there was no practice session today."

The decision was criticised by Chetan Chauhan, the former Indian opener. "How were they allowed to go without ascertaining the security arrangements," he was quoted as saying by PTI. "How were they allowed to go when a series is on?"

Originally Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan, too, had confirmed their participation, but Pathan opted out a few days back and Yuvraj could not make it due to the back injury he had sustained while batting on Friday.

The players will rejoin the team ahead of the second ODI in Indore on Monday.