BCCI to Contest ICC’s Decision to Bar MS Dhoni from Wearing the Insignia Gloves

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) chairman, Vinod Rai, and the BCCI request the ICC to allow MS Dhoni to wear the wicketkeeping gloves having Indian Army insignia on it.

Rahul Johri, the BCCI CEO went to London, yesterday to meet the top management at the ICC to convince them to allow Indian wicketkeeper-batsman, MS Dhoni to permit him to wear the gloves with regimental dagger insignia of the Indian Para Special Forces at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

Ravi Thodge, CoA member Lt Gen. (Retd.) said on Saturday, “BCCI CEO Johri will be meeting ICC officials a day before the game against Australia on Saturday evening. We have received ICC’s reply on the issue last evening but like CoA chairman Vinod Rai said after the meeting, Johri will try to explain our position and we hope the matter can be resolved amicably.”

The BCCI had already mailed the ICC before coming to London. However, the BCCI officials want to talk to the ICC in person, according to Cricketnext. The central board of cricket in India believes that the symbol of ‘Balidaan’ on MS Dhoni’s gloves does not have religious, military or commercial significance for the ICC to restrict the former Indian Captain to wear the gloves.

Earlier ICC had released a statement saying, “The ICC has responded to the BCCI to confirm the logo displayed by MS Dhoni in the previous match is not permitted to be worn on his wicket-keeping gloves at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019.”

The statement further added, “The regulations for ICC events do not permit any individual message or logo to be displayed on any items of clothing or equipment. In addition to this, the logo also breaches the regulations in relation to what is permitted on wicketkeeper gloves.”

“The ICC rules say that the insignia should not have any religious, military or commercial significance. In this particular case, the insignia has none of those connotations. We are going to tell the ICC that it need not be removed, but in any case, if they feel, we will take permission,” Rai said in a statement.

“We had previously taken permission from the ICC when the camouflaged caps were given to the players. We believe in conforming to the norms of the game. ICC has a set of norms, we will go by them,” Vinod Rai added.