IPL 2024: Aussie pacer Hazlewood available only in May; Taskin, Shoriful withdraw from auction
New Delhi, Dec 18: Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood, who has been tipped to create ripples in auction room, will be available for IPL 2024 only from the first week of May, as per the BCCI intimation to the teams.
Hazlewood, who played an integral role in Australia's recent ODI World Cup win, will be away in March and April as the pacer and his wife are expecting their first child.
Hazlewood, who was released by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, has been bracketed in the top-of-the-line Rs 2 crore base price category in the player auction to be held in Dubai on Tuesday.
However, a report in ESPNCricinfo said that all the other Aussies players including World Cup hero Travis Head will be available for the entire duration of the IPL.
Experienced Bangladesh left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman will only be available for the period between March 22 and May 11.
However, fast bowlers Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam will be unavailable for next year's IPL as they are expected to feature in Bangladesh XI in the home series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe between March and April.
Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, who was released by RCB, and pacer Dushmantha Chameera, who was let go by Lucknow Super Giants, will be available for the duration of the IPL as they are not in the Test scheme of things of the Island nation.
The other Lankan players, who are part of the Test squad, will be available after the series against Bangladesh which ends on April 3, if they are bought in the auction.
However, young England leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, who has a base price of Rs 50 lakh, has withdrawn from the auction.
The 19-year-old will fly back home after the five-match Test series against India.
Other England players in the IPL will be strictly monitored by the ECB managing director Rob Key in view of the T20 World Cup that starts in the West Indies and the USA in the immediate aftermath of the IPL 2024.
Harry Brook, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes and Phil Salt are some of the high-profile England players in the auction pool.
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Choose faith or future: BJP alleges 'second-class treatment' of Hindus in K'natka CET row
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Saturday accused the Karnataka Congress government of being "anti-Hindu" and following double standards after students appearing for the Common Entrance Test (CET) were allegedly asked to remove their 'janeu'.
A political row erupted after five Brahmin students were allegedly forced to remove the thread, considered sacred and worn across the torsos, at a city college in during the CET on Friday.
Students alleged that the invigilators at Madivala asked them to remove their janeu/yajnopaveetha if they wanted to write the exam.
In a video post on X, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla lambasted the act.
"Is it a crime to be a Hindu in Karnataka? In Karnataka, students were stopped from entering the examination hall for wearing a janeu and were given a brutal option -- choose your faith or your future. This happened last year as well," Poonawalla alleged.
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He accused the Karnataka government of practising double standards and engaging in appeasement politics.
"In Karnataka, we have seen the politics of appeasement. Muslim reservation, a Muslim-only budget, and quotas and contractual work for Muslims. But Hindus have to remove their sacred thread if they want to take an exam, which even the courts have, by the way, allowed," he alleged.
He accused the Congress government of adopting a similar approach in other states where it is in power, while allowing hijab and burka in classrooms.
"It has happened in various Congress-ruled states. We have seen that the Congress party advocates the right to hijab and burkha within the classroom. They say this should be allowed. Even the courts have overruled it.
"But in the case of janeu, they want it to be removed. This is not the first time this has happened. In Telangana and other states, the tilak and mangalsutra were removed. But hijab is fine. This is the kind of second-class treatment being given to Hindus," he added.
Poonawalla said the Congress should rename itself from INC to "MMC -- Muslim League Maowadi Congress" or the "Islamic National Caliphate Party".
As the controversy took a political turn, the college suspended the invigilator pending inquiry. The government also ordered a probe.
The police registered a case and detained three staff members of Krupanidhi College who were in charge of examination checking for questioning, officials said.
A similar incident took place last year in Karnataka, following which the government directed that the candidates would not be asked to remove the janeu while appearing for the CET.
