The Hindu : Irate cricket fans continue to vent anger

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 18, 2003

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Irate cricket fans continue to vent anger

Kolkata Feb. 17. A mob of about 50 youths today burnt the effigy of the skipper of the Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguly, and torched the pictures of other players.

Carrying pictures of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, and shouting slogans against them, they condemned the players for being ``more interested in doing advertisements." They held placards, which said ``Down with the Indian players'' and ``Let them do only ads, no need for them to play.''

Ganguly, the local favourite, bore the brunt of the assault, signalling the Kolkatans' frustration over the team's dismal performance against Australia. ``They have let us down. They don't care for our sentiments,'' said one youth. At the upmarket Gariahat area, irate fans garlanded the posters of players with shoes.

Taking a cue from the mock ``funeral procession'' taken out here on Sunday, fans burnt Ganguly's effigy at Pathalgaon, a report from Raigarh, Madhya Pradesh, said. They tied shoes around Ganguly's effigy and took out a mock funeral procession. The fans alleged that the match against Australia had been fixed and urged the BCCI to remove Ganguly as captain.

Security at players' homes

A report from Gulbarga said that the Karnataka Government had decided to provide security at the residences of the vice-captain, Rahul Dravid, and bowlers Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath in Bangalore, in the wake of attacks on the houses of Ganguly in Kolkata and Mohammed Kaif in Allahabad.

Disclosing this to newspersons, the Karnataka Home Minister, Mallikarjuna Kharge, said it was only a precautionary measure.

Reports of protests by cricket-lovers had prompted the Government to take security measures against any possible violence in the State. — PTI, UNI

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