No one instigated me to step down from CIC: Ghavri

Karsan Ghavri, one of the four former India Test cricketers, who resigned from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) citing inappropriate behaviour on the part of MCA officials, has reacted strongly yesterday to the comments made by the association's president Ravi Savant on Wednesday. At a media conference, Savant said that Ghavri "must have been instigated to step down" from the Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) after the October 6 meeting.u00a0

Karsan Ghavri

"Nobody has instigated or influenced me to step down from the CIC. The President is wrong in this case. I can take my own decisions. It was my own decision to step down because I was not comfortable in that committee," Ghavri said yesterday taking objection to Savant's comments.

Ghavri, Balvinder Singh Sandhu and Nilesh Kulkarni resigned together from the CIC, while former Mumbai skipper Milind Rege quit from the senior selection panel. Ghavri, however continues to serve as a MCA managing committee member.

In an interview to MiD DAY (October 10), Ghavri claimed that some MCA committee members had treated ex-cricketers like ‘dustbins'.

Sandhu, a member of Kapil Dev's 1983 World Cup-winning side, was also hurt by the Savant's remarks. "It hurts when the MCA president says all this despite giving him full support. No cricketer has instigated anyone to resign. If cricketers are not there, how will MCA exist? There is no Mumbai cricketer in India's Test team after Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan. What is the use of this association if it cannot develop quality cricketers?

"The time has come to realise that votes are not more important than cricket. A lot of introspection needs to be done on all the aspects of the game," added Sandhu.u00a0