Indian badminton star Chirag Shetty on Saturday criticised the Maharashtra government for their ‘step-motherly’ treatment.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday announced a cash reward of Rs 11 crore for the Indian cricket team which won the T20 World Cup. The announcement was made in the central hall of the Vidhan Bhavan (state legislature complex) here where four Mumbai players from the team — captain Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dubey — were felicitated.
The shuttler said the same was not accorded to him after him and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy starring in India’s historic Thomas Cup win in 2022.
“Thomas Cup is equivalent to winning the World Cup. I was part of the Indian badminton team which won its maiden title, shocking champions Indonesia in the final. I was the only Maharashtra player in the Indian team. When the govt can honour World Cup-winning cricket stars, they should have also recognised my efforts. Government should treat any other sport equally,” Chirag was quoted as saying by TOI.
“I have nothing against cricket. In fact, we all badminton players watched the T20 World Cup final live on TV and celebrated enthusiastically. We are happy and proud about their sensational win against South Africa in the final. Similarly, we had also achieved something remarkable a couple of years ago, but the state government did not even felicitate me, leave apart giving any cash rewards. Before 2022, the Indian badminton team had never even reached the semifinals but we created history by winning the title,” he added.
The cricketers were felicitated in the presence of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, Council Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, Sports Minister Sanjay Bansode, Leader of Opposition Ambadas Danve and BCI Treasurer Ashish Shelar. They were given a standing ovation at the Central Hall in Vidhan Bhavan amid slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai’, ‘Rohit Sharmacha Vijay Aso’, ‘Bharatiya Cricket Sanghacha Vijay Aso’.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in his speech said, “Maharashtra is proud of you, we are proud of you.” He appealed to the Chief Minister for the development of a new stadium with a capacity of one lakh people.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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