New Delhi, Apr 4 : Former cricket skipper and Congress candidate for the Moradabad parliamentary constituency, Mohammad Azharuddin, has termed Bharatiya Janata Party leader Varun Gandhi's anti-Muslim speech disturbing, saying it would send out a wrong message to youth.

"It is quite disturbing for a person of his calibre, who has come from an affluent family, to say something like that. He has sent a very wrong message to youth," Azharuddin told reporters here.

When asked about whether invoking the National Security Act (NSA) on the BJP leader was correct, he said: I do not know the nitty gritty of it. I am not a lawyer.

The cricketer stated that it was the party's decision to field him from Moradabad.

"I am very happy. People gave me a good response at Moradabad," he added.

Reacting strongly to the opposition party's charge of him being an outsider, he said: "Nobody is an outsider in India. I am eligible to fight elections from anywhere. I am from Hyderabad. But as a player I used to go everywhere to play". (ANI)