County team Durham has said that it will “personally” speak to the former New Zealand pacer about their head coach James Franklin’s allegations of physical abuse by Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. Earlier this year in the Royal Challengers Bangalore podcast, Chahal recalled the 2011 incident when his Mumbai Indians teammate Franklin and Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds allegedly tied him up while celebrating their Champions League final victory that year. Was.
“We are aware of recent reports of a 2011 incident in which a member of our coaching staff has been named,” Durham said in a statement, according to ESPNcricinfo. But the club will speak privately to the parties concerned to find out the facts.” Chahal had also alleged that the duo had closed his mouth with tape and left him alone in the room overnight. .
Franklin was a part of Mumbai Indians from 2011 to 2013. He was appointed coach of Durham in early 2019. Chahal had said, “This is the incident of 2011 when Mumbai Indians won the Champions League. We were in Chennai. He (Symonds) drank too much ‘fruit juice’.”
Franklin said, “I don’t know what they were thinking, but he and James Franklin tied my hands and feet together and said, ‘Now you open it and show it. He was so intoxicated that he taped my mouth and completely forgot about me during the party.” Chahal said, “They left. In the morning someone came to clean the room and he saw me. He called some other people and opened my hands and feet.
According to Chahal, both the players never apologized to him for this. The charges against Franklin and Symonds came to the fore after the leg-spinner revealed another incident where he was hung from the 15th floor of a hotel by a drunk player at a party after an IPL match in Bengaluru in 2013.