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“What Vinod is saying is absolutely rubbish! He must have been sleeping in the team meeting,” Azhar told CNN IBN.
Azhar said that Kambli had betrayed the team and his comments were disrespectful to all the players who were part of the World Cup squad, saying “highly disrespectful to the (then) team members”.
“We decided to field. It was discussed and a team decision. It was a collective decision. I don’t have any regrets, no reason to shy away from this. What Vinod is saying is absolutely rubbish! He must have been sleeping in the team meeting,” Azhar said.
“We wanted to field first and chase against Sri Lanka, wanted to do something different in the match. Very sad that people are questioning the decision. For Kambli to talk like this, it shows his class,” he added.
“Vinod Kambli on so many occasions has said that I was the best captain he has played under. It’s very annoying the way the statement was made,” Azhar added.
The former India captain, who was handed life ban in 2000 being caught in the match-fixing scandal, said, “The match-fixing case is going on in the High Court. When my name is cleared, everybody will come to know the truth. I am not affected by the allegations. Kambli has made a fool of himself.”
Ajit Wadekar, who was the manager then, also said there was no truth to Kambli’s claims.
“I am here to state the facts. What I can reveal is that we had a team meeting on the eve of the match and there were opinions and counter opinions. Few felt that we should bat first, while others were in favour of fielding. But eventually the decision to field first was unanimous and the captain (Azharuddin) chose to do accordingly when we won the toss,” MiD DAY quoted Wadekar as saying.
Sanjay Manjrekar, who was also part of the 1996 World Cup squad, also came out against Kambli and defended Mohammad Azharuddin’s decision to field first tweeted that, “1996 world cup semi final – The decision to field first may have turned out to be a wrong decision but it was an honest cricketing decision”.
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