In a direct swipe at the ruling govt, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, India would have won the cricket World Cup if the final match was played in Calcutta or Mumbai.Addressing party workers at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here, she alleged that attempts were being to "saffronise" the country's cricket team."They are trying to paint the entire country saffron. We are proud of our Indian players, and I believe that we would have won the World Cup if the finals had taken place in Calcutta or Wankhede (in Mumbai)," she said."They even tried to saffronise the team by introducing saffron practice jerseys. The players resisted, and as a result, they did not have to wear those jerseys during the matches," she added. Continuing her attack on the BJP, Banerjee said that wherever sinners go, they take along their sins."The Indian team played so well that they won all the matches in the World Cup, except the one attended by the sinners," she said, without naming anyone.
Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a poll speech in Rajasthan, had used the 'panauti' barb against PM Narendra Modi as he had attended the World Cup final which India lost to Australia after 10 consecutive wins in the tournament. India ended their World Cup campaign with a heart-breaking defeat against Australia in a lopsided final on Sunday. In a one-sided game, Australia comfortably defeated India by six wickets. Before the final, India had scored over 350 in three of their previous four games, with the only time they didn't do so being against South Africa. They had scored 326 in that match and went on to win by a whopping 243 runs. However, they were all out for just 240 runs in the final in 50 overs and Australia chased it down in 43 overs. India had scored 80 runs in the first 10 overs but they managed to hit just four fours and no sixes for the rest of their innings.