The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia has responded to Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed calling India men's team cricket captain Rohit Sharma 'fat' during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 game against New Zealand on March 2.
"- @ImRo45 is fat for a sportsman! Need to lose weight! And ofcourse the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had!" she wrote on X.
Since the backlash, Shama has deleted all her posts criticising Rohit for his fitness, captaincy and performances. The BCCI secretary Saikia called these comments 'derogratory' and an irresponsible comment for her personal publicity.
"It is very unfortunate that a responsible person has passed this kind of comment which is very derogratory and damaging to an individual player who is in the middle of an important ICC marquee tournament. All the players in the team are performing exceedingly well and irresponsible statements like these can have some adverse impact," Saikia said in an exclusive interaction with Sports Tak.
"I hope that no responsible person from any important organisation makes this kind of comment for their personal publicity at the risk of damaging the team's performance in the tournament," he added.
Shama's other posts justifying the criticism of Rohit
When Shama faced backlash, she compared Rohit to his predecessors Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and others.
"What is so world class about him when compared to his predecessors like Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni, Kohli , Kapil dev, Shastri & the rest! He is a mediocre captain as well as a mediocre player who got lucky to be the Captain of India," she said.
Shama blamed Rohit for the loss in the final of ODI World Cup 2023 final to Australia. Also, she blamed her for dropping Shubman Gill and pushing KL Rahul's batting position to no.3 during Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
"Didn't he move KL Rahul to bat at number 3 at the MCG Test & put himself at number 1 which backfired totally ! Wasn't that a selfish move ? Because of that Shubam Gill was out of the XI," she wrote.
"Didn't we lose the last World Cup which took place in Ahmedabad? I have compared him to our previous captains," she added.
Shama's defense
In her defense, Shama said that she was not body shaming Rohit and was merely exercising her right to 'freedom of speech'.
Meanwhile, India have qualified for the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. They will face Australia in the semifinal on March 4 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
