The Indian men’s cricket team departed for Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday for the Asian Games, where the Shreyas Iyer-led team will begin their campaign on September 28. However, in the days leading up to the squad’s departure for Japan, several media reports circulated, claiming that some members of the squad did not receive kits of the right size for the showpiece event, which proved to be a major hindrance.
A PTI report also claimed that there was a major back-and-forth between the BCCI and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA)’s kit supplier, JSW Inspire, over the players’ jerseys.
However, JSW Inspire has now issued a public statement, saying there’s no truth to such claims as the kits were handed out to both men’s and women’s teams days in advance.
“More specifically, the kit for both the men’s & women’s cricket teams have been handed over to the respective managers well in advance. They have confirmed that the kits are in order and that there are no issues. The men’s team will be wearing the JSW Inspire kit when they travel from Tokyo to Nagoya on 26th September. JSW Inspire remains committed to upholding the standards and values of the Asian Games,” a JSW Spokesperson said.
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It is worth noting that the Indian men’s team will play a one-off T20I against Japan on September 22 and will be wearing a different jersey for this contest.
Opening ceremony chaos
On Saturday, the Asian Games were officially declared open during the opening ceremony. Manu Bhaker and Tajindersingh Pal Toor were supposed to be the flag-bearers for India, but at the last minute, the shot-putter was replaced by kabaddi player Pawan Sehrawat after the former faced a kit issue.
“Due to technical issues, Tajinderpal Singh Toor will not be able to be India’s flagbearer. Pawan Sehrawat will be India’s male flagbearer today,” the IOA said in a statement. However, several reports stated that Toor was unable to make it after failing to receive his ceremonial kit.
Speaking about the ceremonial kit, the JSW spokesperson said, “It has come to our attention that certain sections of the media are attributing the issue of the Indian contingent not getting the ceremonial kit in time to JSW Sports. We would like to clarify that responsibility for the production and handover of the ceremonial kit was not with JSW Inspire. We have provided the performance kits for the players to the respective federations in a phased manner.”
