India’s Orange WC Jersey Irks Maharashtra MLAs

The orange coloured jersey, which is to be sported by the Indian cricket team in its world cup match against hosts England on June 30, has been vehemently opposed by the Congress and Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra.

A few photographs of the jersey went viral on June 22.

"Modi ji wants to saffronise the entire country. A Muslim was the one who designed the Indian Tricolour. There are other colours in the Tricolour, why choose only orange? It will be better if their jersey is based on the Tricolour," said Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi.

"Ever since the Modi government has come to power, it has been playing saffron politics. The Tricolour should be respected and national harmony should be promoted. This government wants to saffronise everything," said Congress MLA Naseem Khan echoing Azmi's sentiments.

It may be mentioned here that according to ICC rules, all teams in the 2019 World Cup except hosts England, needed to have provisions for two different coloured kits.

"For televised ICC events all participating teams will be required to provide for two different coloured kits, except for the host country who has a preference in the choice of colour and may, if it chooses to do so, provide only one coloured kit to be worn in all matches throughout the event. In advance of the event the teams will be notified which coloured kit will be worn in each match," the ICC had said in a release.

The orange jersey will be sported by India for one match only.
In the statement, the ICC further said that colour options were given to BCCI and the Indian board chose what went best with their colour combination.

The design for the orange jersey is inspired by India's T20 kit which also has shades of orange in it.