ICC World Cup 2019: ICC responds to Michael Vaughan for questioning its 'impartiality' over Virat Kohli tweet

New Delhi, June 5: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come up with a befitting reply to the remarks of former England captain Michael Vaughan during India's opening game in the ICC Cricket World Cup against South Africa on Wednesday (June 5).

Ahead of Virat Kohli-led Indian teams opening World Cup game against Proteas, ICC's official Twitter handle posted a painting of the Indian captain wearing a crown and sitting on a throne and captioned it, "👑#TeamIndia#CWC19".

👑#TeamIndia#CWC19 pic.twitter.com/cGY12LaV3H

— ICC (@ICC) June 5, 2019

Amused with the ICC's image, Vaughan - who is a fan of Kohli's batting - called global cricketing body's gesture and questioned its impartiality.

Match Highlights

"Nothing like impartiality," wrote the former England cricketer on his Twitter handle to trigger a debate on the social media.

Nothing like impartiality!!! https://t.co/Ok0y95MI0z

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) June 5, 2019

Supporters of other cricketing nations too joined Vaughan to criticise ICC for doing favouritism towards Indian cricketers. Some even labelled ICC as the BCCI's proxy.

As the clamour over social media grew louder following Vaughan's tweet, the ICC decided to put an end to it. Responding to Vaughan's tweet ICC tweeted the image of this year's ICC Cricket Awards 2018 in which the Indian captain was named the Test Cricketer of the Year, ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year, and ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year.

Meanwhile, Kohli's bat didn't do much talking in the game but Team India registered a professional win over Proteas by 6 wickets and started their World Cup campaign on a positive note.

Rohit Sharma scored a crucial unbeaten 122 as miserable South African side recorded their third straight defeat.

India started slowly in a seemingly straightforward chase of 228 as Virat Kohli failed to fire, but Rohit moved through the gears to defeat a Proteas attack missing Lungi Ngidi and Dale Steyn.

It was a victory World Cup debutants Jasprit Bumrah (2-35) and Yuzvendra Chahal (4-51) deserved, too, after superb displays at the Rose Bowl restricted their opponents to 227-9.