Indian Cricketers Break Silence on Sexual Abuse Allegations

India’s top cricketers have spoken out in support of the wrestlers who are protesting against the chief of the Indian wrestling federation, whom they accuse of sexually abusing and exploiting women wrestlers for the past decade.
The Delhi Police agreed to investigate the charges against the wrestling federation’s chief after the wrestlers moved the Supreme Court for action.
The wrestlers have been protesting at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for the past five days, and they have been calling for justice for their fellow sportspersons.

Top-notch Indian cricketers, including Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, and Shikha Pandey, have broken their silence on the ongoing protests by India’s top wrestlers. The wrestlers have been demanding the dismissal of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the chief of the Indian wrestling federation, whom they have accused of sexually abusing and exploiting women wrestlers for the past decade. On Friday, the Delhi Police agreed to investigate the charges against Singh, a week after the complaint was first filed, and only after the wrestlers moved the Supreme Court for action.

Kapil Dev, in an Instagram post, asked whether the wrestlers would ever get justice, along with a photograph of Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and Sakshi Malik, who have been leading a protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for the past five days. They were part of a group of 30-odd wrestlers at Jantar Mantar in January this year, too, when they made public the allegations against Singh, a member of parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The union sports ministry, which is headed by former BCCI president Anurag Thakur, tasked its oversight committee to investigate the matter and submit the findings by February. The committee included, among others, boxer MC Mary Kom and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, both Olympic Games medallists. Reports suggest that even two months on, the findings of the oversight committee have not been made available to the wrestlers.

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Support for the wrestlers had been extremely limited all along. On Thursday, PT Usha, the champion athlete from the 1980s who is now the president of the Indian Olympic Association, said that the conduct of the protesting wrestlers amounted to “indiscipline” and that it was “not good for sport.” Her comments were met with severe public criticism, and Punia expressed disappointment at the “harsh reaction.”

Vinesh Phogat issued a plea to the Indian cricket community on Friday, asking why they had been silent on the plight of their fellow sportspersons. “The entire country worships cricket, but not even a single cricketer has spoken up,” she said. “We aren’t saying that you speak in our favor, but at least put up a neutral message and say there should be justice for whichever party. This is what pains me… Be it cricketers, badminton players, athletics, boxing… During the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, they showed their support. Don’t we deserve even that much?”

While Kapil’s message had come a day before, on Thursday, Harbhajan tweeted on Friday, “I am pained as a sportsperson to find pride of our country coming out to protest on the streets,” while Sehwag wrote, “It’s a sensitive matter and needs an impartial investigation,” and Pathan said, “Indian athletes are always our pride not only when they get medals for us…”. Later on Friday evening, Pandey tweeted her support for the wrestlers too, hoping “that justice shall be served at the earliest.”