ICC World Cup: Team India to Wear Orange Jersey in Match Against England, Cong MLA Blames Govt For Saffronising Sport

An ICC source said, "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."

Mumbai: Little would the Board of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI) have known that the option of kitting out the Indian cricket team in orange as they take on the English side at the ongoing World Cup would be seen as an attempt to saffronise the sport as well. (Also read: Cricket Prediction Tips For Today’s Match Here)

India play England on June 30.

Soon after the news of orange being the colour of choice for the Indian side came out, Maharashtra Congress MLA M A Khan said, “Yeh sarkaar har cheez ko alag nazar se dekhne aur dikhane ki koshish poore desh mein pichle panch saal se kar rahi hai. Yeh sarkaar bhagwakaran ki taraf iss desh ko le jane ka kaam kar rahi hai (This Government has been trying for the past five years to change the perception of everything. This Government is pushing the country towards saffronisation).”

Maharashtra Congress MLA MA Khan on being asked about Team India’s alternate jersey: Yeh sarkaar har cheez ko alag nazar se dekhne aur dikhane ki koshish poore desh mein pichle panch saal se kar rahi hai. Yeh sarkaar bhagwakaran ki taraf iss desh ko le jane ka kaam kar rahi hai. pic.twitter.com/dlwoZALMqH

— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2019

Meanwhile, an International Cricket Council (ICC) source told ANI, “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.”

“Also the design (orange) is taken from India’s old T20 jersey which had orange in it. The designers who are sitting in the USA designed this jersey from something that already existed and not something completely new that fans don’t identify with,” the source added.

Before the start of the World Cup, ICC introduced a new rule asking the teams to sport home and away jerseys in the tournament. The ICC rule said, “For televised ICC events, all participating teams will be required to provide for two different coloured kits, except for the host country which has 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.”

This time, South Africa, who generally sport green jersey with yellow shade, are wearing one that is dominated by yellow with patches of green in the team’s
match against Bangladesh. Similarly, Afghanistan, who generally sport blue jersey, wore a jersey with more red added to their blue jersey.