Digvijay Singh supports Azharuddin against Kambli's allegations

New Delhi, Nov 19 (ANI): Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has defended former cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin against former cricketer Vinod Kambli's allegations that the 1996 World Cup semi-final might have been fixed.

"Why did he (Kambli) have to wait for 15 years? Azhar has been a great cricketer, a great skipper and above all is a great human being," Singh told the media here.

"He (Kambli) has given a very controversial statement. Kambli himself is a good cricketer. But is it right to defame anybody?" Singh asked.

Earlier, refuting all charges leveled against him, Azharuddin, now a Congress MP from Moradabad said the allegation has been made by a person who lacks character and were "absolutely rubbish".

"Absolutely rubbish, whatever he (Kambli) is talking. He doesn't know what he is talking, when you have people who have no character and no background come on TV and talk absolute rubbish in front of the nation and demeaning all the players who played in the team, it is totally disrespectful and its very sad," Azhar told reporters.

Kambli on Thursday raised suspicion about the 1996 World Cup semi-final between India and Sri Lanka, and said, he found something amiss in the game.

"I will never forget the 1996 match because my career ended after this and I was dropped from the team. I was stunned by India's decision to field," Kambli said on television.

Kambli also claimed that then team manager Ajit Wadekar, also a former India captain, was aware of everything.

"Something was definitely amiss. However, I was not given a chance to speak and was dropped soon after. Our team manager at that time, Wadekar, was aware of everything," he said.

Sri Lanka won the first semi-final over India at Eden Gardens in 1996. When chasing a total of 251-8, the hosts slumped to 120-8 in the 35th over and that led to crowd disturbance.

The players left the field for 20 minutes in an attempt to quieten the crowd. When the players returned for play, more bottles were thrown onto the field, forcing match referee Clive Lloyd to award the match to Sri Lanka, the first default win ever in Test or one-day international. (ANI)