I never said VVS Laxman does not enjoy Dhoni's support: Sourav Ganguly

NEW DELHI: Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly on Sunday clarified that he never suggested through his comments that VVS Laxman does not enjoy captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's support.

Laxman stunned cricket fraternity on Saturday by announcing his sudden retirement. The timing of Laxman's retirement shocked many as he was picked in the squad for the upcoming two-Test series against New Zealand.

Ganguly was quoted as saying in media that had Laxman enjoyed support of his skipper Dhoni, situation could have been different for him.

However, Ganguly on Sunday said, he did not mean what media suggested of his comments.

"I would like to place on record that part of my comment on VVS Laxman's efforts to get in touch with skipper MS Dhoni was misconstrued. What I did say was, 'In cricket at times you need to be available 24x7 as a captain'. It no way implied that Laxman doesn't enjoy his skipper's support or suggest that the situation would have been different (for Laxman) had he enjoyed the skipper's support," Ganguly said.

Ganguly had also lashed out at the selectors, especially chief selector K Srikkanth for the communication gap between them and the players.

Madras high court comes to rescue of Muslim girl

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras high court has ruled that a young Muslim girl cannot be branded by the Jamath as an 'illegitimate' child because her father had married two sisters one after the other despite a specific prohibition under the Mohammedan law.

The specific prohibition under the Mohammedan law permits marrying another woman only after 'talaq'.

Dismissing a civil revision petition filed by the Nagercoil Jamath president, Justice S Palanivelu said the act committed by the girl's father was a curable irregularity and, therefore, the children born out of such a marriage could not be called 'illegitimate'.

A Sohail Ahmed (name changed) was a member of the Mahan Tulkasha Olliyullah Darga Vadaseri Kuthba Pallivasal at Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district.

He married two sisters and lived with both of them. He had five children from the first wife and two daughters from her sister.

In 1997, he filed a civil suit before the Principal Munsif Court at Nagercoil challenging his extermination from the Jamath. Even as the case was pending, a compromise was reached between him and the new office bearers of the Jamath in May 2006.

In February this year, he applied for a No Objection Certificate from the Jamath to give the girl born out of his second marriage to a groom based in Chennai. But the Jamath's president refused to issue the NOC, a pre-requisite for conducting Muslim marriages.

The judge directed the Jamath to issue a NOC forthwith to Ahmed so that he could conduct her marriage without any hitch in the lawful capacity of being her father.