The high-pitched political shrills have taken a back seat, and the breaking news is on the ‘Balidaan’ logo sported in the keeping gloves of MS Dhoni, during the ICC World cup that has been objected to by the world body conducting the game. The regulations about the players’ attire, the logos they can sport are well detailed in the General Regulations of the ICC, and all participating countries are signatories to the same and must honour the same.
For a country, dying to prove its nationalism at the blink of every eye, this has come as a great affront. Media, politicians, man on the street, activists in the social media are all out contributing to the noise and din egging the cricketer not to yield and to keep the gloves on.
The innocuous Balidaan logo of the Indian Special Forces. Let me first reproduce Rule 1 about the logos as under:
Quote- “Any clothing or equipment that does not comply with these Regulations is strictly prohibited. In particular, no Logo shall be permitted to be displayed on Cricket Clothing or Cricket Equipment, other than a National Logo, a Commercial Logo, an Event Logo, a Manufacturer’s Logo, a Player’s Bat Logo, a Charity Logo or a Non-Commercial Logo as provided in these Regulations. In addition, where any Match Official becomes aware of any clothing or equipment that does not comply with these Regulations, he shall be authorised to prevent the offending person from taking the field of play (or to order them from the field of play, if appropriate) until the non-compliant clothing or equipment is removed or appropriately covered up.”-Unquote
For a moment, let us think our reaction if another country, say one of the Pakistan players sports the Azad Kashmir Regiment insignia. Hell would have broken loose, and the scalp of the BCCI honchos, why even the Prime Minister’s would have been demanded by a charged nation.
The Indian Territorial Army conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Dhoni on 1 November 2011. He is the second Indian cricketer after Kapil Dev to receive this honour. Balidaan is a distinct insignia of the special forces, which form part of the Parachute Regiment. It has a commando dagger pointed downwards, with upward-extending wings extending from the blade and a scroll superimposed on the blade with “Balidaan” inscribed in Devanagari. Neither Dhoni nor BCCI seems to have obtained the approval of the additional logo with the ICC, and in any case, no permission would have been granted to military-related embellishments.
In an earlier case, India was granted permission to don the military caps in the 3rd ODI against Australia, played at Ranchi on 8 March 2019. This was done as a part of a charity to raise funds for the National Defence Fund to support the families of the CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama attack. Pakistan opposed to this though.
Dhoni and the Indian team must respect International regulations while participating in the World cup and be graceful to replace the gloves, in the true spirit of Balidaan, or sacrifice and continue with the game. India and BCCI flexing muscles on this issue is fallacious. I wish the Indian team to win the cup and return victorious!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
PS: I’ve given the weblink for those who are interested to read the regulations. file:///Users/sskumar/Downloads/Clothing_and_Equipment_Regulations%20(2).pdf
