Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has slammed Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 broadcasters Star Sports for ‘breach of privacy’. Rohit has accused the broadcaster of recording his conversation without his permission and airing it to get views and engagement. He feels that the need to get exclusive content may one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket.
“The lives of cricketers have become so intrusive that cameras are now recording every step and conversation we are having in privacy with our friends and colleagues, at training or on match days,” Rohit wrote on X.
“Despite asking Star Sports to not record my conversation, it was and was also then played on air, which is a breach of privacy. The need to get exclusive content and focused only on views and engagement will one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket. Let better sense prevail.”
In a video posted by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) which was later delated, Rohit was having a conversation with his former teammate Abhishek Nayar.
"Ek ek cheez change ho raha hai... . Woh unke upar hai, main ye sab pe dhyaan nahi data... (Everything is changing one by one. It depends on them, I don't care about that). Jo bhi hai woh mera ghar hai bhai, woh temple jo hai na maine banwaya hai. (Whatever it is, it's my home. It's a temple that I've built)".
Later, in MI's last clash against LSG, he was talking to former teammate Dhawal Kulkarni and asked the cameraman to turn off the audio.
"Bhai, audio band karo, ek audio ne mera watt laga diya" (Brother, turn off the audio, one audio has already caused me trouble),” he was heard saying in the video.
Earlier, former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar had slammed the broadcasters for making a fuss about Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) opener Virat Kohli's strike rate.
"Commentators questioned only when the strike rate was 118. I'm not too sure. I don't watch too many matches, so I don't know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you have a strike of 118 and then you get out in the 14th or the 15th with a strike-rate of 118, I mean, if you want applause for that, that's a little bit different. That's different," said Gavaskar during the live show.
"When you talk about all these guys talk about, oh we don't care about outside noise, acha. Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don't have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don't necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening," he added.
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