Mohammad Azharuddin storms out of press conference after match-fixing questions

Former Indian cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin reportedly stormed out from an interview session after being asked a match-fixing related question during the post production promotional activities of his upcoming biopic, ‘Azhar’.

The 53-year-old former Indian Test captain made his Test debut for the ‘Men in Blue’ back in 1985. And now his oft-controversial life has become the story of a Tony D’Souza-directed feature film which is set to hit the theatres on the 13th of May.

In a career that spanned over two decades, Mohammad Azharuddin not only played 99 Test Matches and 334 One Day Internationals for India but also racked up over 15,000 international runs. The man from Hyderabad also has the distinction of leading India in the most number of ICC World Cups (1992, 1996 and 1999).

However, towards the end of his cricketing career, the former Indian skipper was found guilty of fixing matches with both ICC and BCCI banning the erstwhile Indian captain for life, back in 2000.

However, the BCCI later lifted the ban on the former India international in 2006.

Therefore, it didn’t really strike anyone as a surprise when the American journalist-turned-film maker Tony D’Souza decided to make a film on the eventful life of Mohammad Azharuddin. The upcoming film features Emraan Hashmi in the lead role of ‘Azhar’, whereas Prachi Desai plays the role of his first wife Naureen and Nargis Fakhri plays that of his second consort, Sangeeta Bijlani.

As the biopic is set to hit the theatres this Friday, Azharuddin has been seen travelling a lot with the crew for the promotional activities of the film. According to a source, “When the film started, the production house had made it clear that he would have to travel with the rest of the team as they wanted to be a part of the promotions.

Mohammad Azharuddin was fine with it though he didn’t do all the promotional activities – only the fun ones or media junkets like the recent Dubai trip.”

It was on one such trip that Mohammad Azharuddin was asked a controversial question by the reporter of a national news channel. In reply, the 53-year-old simply stormed off the promotional event, leaving the anchor of the show dumbstruck.

The source, later, confirmed that Azharuddin had refused to go back on the stage. “It’s for the same reason that he’s also refused to be part of a major show hosted by another news channel as he doesn’t want to be asked hard-nosed questions at all,” he added.