‘Was Team India unaware about Hemant Kanitkar's death?’ asks Chandu Borde

Mumbai: Members of the Indian cricket team were not spotted wearing black armbands in the immediate match for the departed Test cricketer Hemant Kanitkar. Once, the Australian players wore black armbands to pay respect to the departed daughters of the team’s media manager.

No such procedure was followed when India's former Test cricketer Kanitkar passed away on Tuesday night. Chandu Borde, who was Kanitkar's captain feels that the news "may not have reached" to the team, which is playing a Test in Bangladesh.

(Photo: PTI)

"I have a feeling that the team may be unaware about Kanitkar's death. Otherwise, how can they forget to mourn for him?," the 80-year-old Borde, speaking from his residence in Pune, said on Friday.

Borde's argument perhaps holds no water in the days of internet and mobile. "I am not aware what the present policy is. But if I was a manager on this tour, I would have requested the players to wear it," Borde, who has been a selector and manager on tours in the past added.

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No member of the present team was born when Hemant Kanitkar played his last Test (against West Indies in 1974). It is not necessary that all players should wear black armbands together. Even if some of them who have played against Hemant Kanitkar’s son Hrishikesh, it would have been a consolation.

The BCCI did send a condolence release on the day of the Test match but the openers (Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay) didn't turn up in whites spotting black armbands when the match resumed in the third session on the first day or even on Friday when the rain-affected Test commenced.