Hyderabad: Dhoni, who is an Honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army, had the insignia printed on his green wicket-keeping gloves during the India-South Africa World Cup group stage match at the Rose Bowl stadium in Southampton.
As ICC rejected BCCI's request to allow MS Dhoni to continue with the insignia gloves here is how sports fraternity responded to the development.
Virender Sehwag- "ICC rule says that unless you take written permission you can not use any badge. If he wishes to use the logo then he again has to write to the ICC and take permission".
Akash Chopra- "Emotions are at their place, but one has to follow the rules of ICC".
Sunil Gavaskar - "MS Dhoni wearing any kind of gloves should not be of our concern. What we should be interested in is, how good is his keeping skills, is he catching the ball, is he stumping fast". We should be interested in that. I don't care if he wears the gloves or not.
Mohammed Azharuddin- "I think that there is no problem wearing it but the rules should be followed. If ICC gives permission to wear something like that then every team's player would do that".
Bhaichung Bhutia- "MS Dhoni's Army insignia gesture wonderful but ICC rule has to be respected".
What does ICC regulation say?
According to ICC regulations, players can’t sport anything that carries message related to political, religious or racial activities or causes.
ICC says: “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 the regulations.”
However, ICC recognises the logo as any form of identification or branding including (without limitation) any corporate name, business name, title, flag, emblem, crest, mascot or trademark and so.
What happens when the rules are breached?
Claire Furlong, ICC general manager — strategic communications, said in a statement that “for first breach, just a request to remove” is sent. If the 'request' is not accepted the governing body will impose a penalty on the cricketer or on the concerned board.
ICC rules say that, “where any match official becomes aware of any clothing or equipment that does not comply with the rules, 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.”
