ICC gives Sri Lanka permission to wear 2nd choice 'lucky yellow jersey'

In a first, the ICC has acceded to Sri Lanka cricket team's request of allowing them to wear their second choice "yellow jersey" for the remaining World Cup games as they consider it to be "lucky" after winning against England.

The ICC has introduced a second choice jersey for each team in the competition where one team will be considered home and other away.

India is set to wear their second choice jersey dominated by orange colour compared to their usual blue against England in Birmingham on June 30.

Sri Lanka wore a jersey that had yellow base, different from their usual navy blue base and their campaign was back in track after beating hosts England.

READ| Congress, SP Oppose Team India's Orange Jersey, Paints It With A Communal Colour Saying 'Modi Government Is Trying To Saffronise The Country'

"The Sri Lanka team considers yellow jersey to be their lucky one. They put in a formal request if they could wear it against any other team in the competition. The ICC saw that it's not clashing with colours of other teams and hence they have been allowed," an ICC source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

While Sri Lanka's second choice jersey did not create any controversy, India's bowling coach Bharath Arun was asked about his take on the colour of the second choice jersey which has been politicised in some quarters.

"To be very honest, we are not even aware of which colour we are going to be wearing. So, we have not given any thought on that. All our focus is on the match tomorrow," Arun said.

As per news agency ANI, ICC has said that colour options were given to BCCI and they chose what they felt went best with the colour combination. The whole idea is to be different as England also wears the same shade of blue as India. The design is taken from India’s old T20 jersey which had orange in it.

In Mumbai, Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi Wednesday said India cricket team wearing orange jersey could be "saffronisation".

Asked about the politicisation on this issue, Arun simply said, "We bleed blue and blue is going to be predominantly the colour tomorrow. That is it." 

READ| World Cup 2019 | Match Against India Very Important For Us, Says Chris Gayle