Pune: In the wake of attacks on Indians in Australia, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday said his party would not allow the Down Under team to play cricket in Maharashtra.
Expressing anguish over the violence against Indians in Australia, Thackeray said, "Our boys are being stabbed, burnt and shot at in that country and still our cricketers have no qualms in playing with them. Do they have any national pride?".
In the Sena announcement banning Australian cricketers
in Maharashtra, front-paged in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana',
he recalled that his activists had taken a similar step
against Pakistani cricketers who still cannot play in the
state.
The Sena supremo also had a word of praise for actor
Amitabh Bachchan who, he said, displayed a patriotic spirit
when he politely refused an award in his honour from
Queensland University in protest against the incidents in
Australia.
"I would have been happy if our cricketers too had
shown similar self-respect in the matter. But cricket has
become a game of money and self-respect and patriotism have
taken a back-seat," Thackeray commented.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 23:46