After resigning as the coach of Uttarakhand, former Indian opener, Wasim Jaffer answered the queries why he continued with the positive when his recommendations are not being adhered to. Earlier this week, he had suffered a lot of interference from the selection committee and Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) secretary Mahim Verma in team selection. Wasim Jaffer asserted that he turned down various coaching roles, including the offer of Bangladesh’s batting coach.
During a chat with ANI, Wasim Jaffer said, “It is very disheartening and it is very sad, to be honest. I have worked with so much intensity and I was fully committed to being the coach of Uttarakhand. I always wanted to push the deserving candidates. It seemed like that I was fighting for every little thing. There was so much interference of the selectors, sometimes non-deserving players are being pushed.”
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He further elaborated, “The secretary Mahim Verma has a lot of interference, whenever you talk to him, he says to talk to him. There were many roadblocks and he never responded to me. Towards the end, they selected the team for Vijay Hazare Trophy and I was not kept in the loop. They changed the captain, 11 players were changed, if things have to go down like this, then how can one work?”
Jaffer became the coach of Uttarakhand in June last year. As per some media reports, some CAU officials alleged him for being communal, saying that the domestic cricket stalwart was creating a religious divide within the team. However, Wasim Jaffer termed it as completely “baseless” and said if this was the case, he would’ve been sacked.
1. I recommended Jay Bista for captaincy not Iqbal but CAU officials favoured Iqbal.
2. I did not invite Maulavis
3. I resigned cos bias of selectors-secretary for non-deserving players
4. Team used to say a chant of Sikh community, I suggested we can say "Go Uttarakhand" #Facts https://t.co/8vZSisrDDl— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) February 10, 2021
Elaborating the same, Jaffer said, “I told them if you have me here just give me some freedom. I had conveyed everything to them but unfortunately, things did not happen like that. Somebody who has played for 15-20 years and then to hear this, these are baseless allegations, they are doing this to cover up all other issues. If I was communal, I would have been sacked. Now that I have resigned, they are bringing these things up.”
However, when ANI contacted CAU secretary Mahim Verma for his take on the whole Jaffer issue, he said that the latter had the habit of behavior on misbehaving with him many times and he wanted the selection committee to always back his calls.
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Explaining the same, Mahim Verma said, “We started creating activities on his request only. He organized a selection match. Jaffer said that if things will not run in my opinion I will step down. He also said that trainer and bowling coach will be from my side I said okay. He also misbehaved with me several times. There were many issues with him. We wanted a good cricketing atmosphere in our association that is why we hired him.”
