‘Azhar’, a biopic based on the life of famous cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin, is all set to hit the screens on 13th of May. Emraan Hashmi would be essaying the lead role. The makers have avoided using real names of certain personalities and characters but since the looks of cricketers have been re-created in this movie, you would definitely recognize who is who!
Even though the film isn’t released yet, some cricket personalities are worried about what the movie would reveal about them and their association with match-fixing scandal. Cricketers fear that the movie would depict the darkest days of their life and some old things would be dug out. Let us see which cricketers are worried!
1. Manoj Prabhakar
Just like Azharuddin, even Manoj Prabhakar’s life was filled with controversies. Manoj had started his cricketing career in 1990 and had played all his matches under the captaincy of Azharuddin. Manoj too was among those cricketers, whose names were involved in the match fixing scandal of year 2000.
2. Kapil Dev
Famous cricketer Kapil Dev had played under the captaincy of Azhar for 4 years i.e. 1990 to 1994. After retirement, he was the coach of the Indian cricket team. When the match fixing scandal had come to light, Manoj Prabhakar had mentioned the name of Kapil Dev too. However, Prabhakar couldn’t provide any evidence for the same.
3. Ravi Shastri
In a sting operation, Ravi Shastri had revealed something about Azharuddin.
He said “Once, Azhar liked Pappu Butani’s wrist watch very much.
He told Butani, ‘Your watch is very good.’
So Butani said, ‘It is very cheap.’
Azhar asked ‘How much?’
Butani replied: ‘Somewhere between Rs 5 and 6 lakh.’
Azhar then went upstairs and brought down a bag containing six lakhs and bought that watch right away”
4. Navjot Singh Sidhu
When the Indian cricket team was on its England tour (under the captaincy of Azhar), Navjot Singh Sidhu left the tournament half way and returned. No one knows the reason behind this.
