Former India head coach Ravi Shastri urged Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly to look into Wriddhiman Saha's case who earlier claimed that he was threatened and insulted by a journalist (name still unknown) for not giving an interview. To support his claim, Saha also shared a screenshot of chats on Twitter where the journalist is seemingly pestering the former for an interview. Saha wrote a note on Twitter with the screenshot that read: “After all of my contributions to Indian cricket..this is what I face from a so-called “Respected” journalist! This is where the journalism has gone.”
Shastri along with some cricketers extended his support to the the 37-year-old wicketkeeper batter and called it 'Blatant position abuse'.
“Shocking a player being threatened by a journo. Blatant position abuse. Something that’s happening too frequently with #TeamIndia. Time for the BCCI PREZ to dive in. Find out who the person is in the interest of every cricketer. This is serious coming from ultimate team man WS,” Shastri tweeted.
The entire episode started moments after Chetan Sharma-led selectors panel had informed that the 37-year-old that he won’t be considered for the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka alongside Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma.
Reacting to Saha’s post, Virender Sehwag had also insisted on his support for Saha and used a lot of harsh words to describe the journalist who had sent the messages.
"Extremely sad. Such sense of entitlement, neither is he respected nor a journalist, just chamchagiri. With you Wriddhi," Sehwag's tweet read.
Meanwhile, former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also showed out his support asking for the journalist to be named and voted for the players to be protected by BCCI.
"Wridhi you just name the person so that the cricket community knows who operates like this. Else even the good ones will be put under suspicion," Harbhajan said.
Saha last played for India in November against New Zealand in Kanpur, when the team management rested Rishabh Pant. The 37-year-old Saha battled neck spasms to make a fighting, unbeaten half-century in the second innings to set up India's declaration. It was in the same Test that KS Bharat, 10 years Saha's junior, stood-in admirably as a substitute wicketkeeper and impressed with his neat glove work on a turning surface.
Earlier, India's head coach Rahul Dravid finally come up with a clarification on the conversation between him and Wriddhiman Saha about the latter's position and future in the team. Right after being dropped from India's Test squad for Sri Lanka home series, Saha had said that team management headed by Dravid had told him that it was unlikely he would be considered for the longest format going forward.
"I'm actually not hurt at all. I have deep respect for Wriddhi and his achievements and his contribution to Indian cricket. My conversation came from that place. I think he deserved honesty and clarity," Dravid said after India's 3-0 T20 series sweep against West Indies.
The 49-year-old said that he will continue having such conversations with players whether they like the content of the discussion or not.
"It's about conversations I constantly have with players. I don't expect players to always agree with everything I say about them. That's not how it works. You can have difficult conversations with the players, but that doesn't mean you brush it under the carpet and don't have the conversations," Dravid was crystal clear in his approach.
Meanwhile, the first Test will be played from March 4 at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh and the second Test will be played from March 12 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin (subject to fitness), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Saurabh Kumar.
