Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has kept newsmen busy from last few days. After he was dropped from Indiaโs Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka, he revealed that the Head Coach Rahul Dravid had told him to consider retirement as he no longer fits in the teamโs scheme of things.
He also claimed that the BCCI president had told him not to worry about his place in the team as long as he is at the helm of affairs.
But what has triggered uproar is Sahaโs Twitter post in which he shared a screenshot of threatening messages he had received from a โrespected journalistโ. The screenshot shows a host of messages by an unknown journalist who allegedly threatened Saha for not giving him an interview. The journalist told him โhe doesnโt take insults kindly and will never interview him.โ He also said that he would always remember this.
After all of my contributions to Indian cricket..this is what I face from a so called โRespectedโ journalist! This is where the journalism has gone. pic.twitter.com/woVyq1sOZX
โ Wriddhiman Saha (@Wriddhipops) February 19, 2022
From the screenshot, there doesnโt seem any provocation on Sahaโs part. In fact, he ignored those messages and chose not to respond.
Many former Indian cricketers have lent their support and expressed solidarity with Saha, โExtremely sad. Such sense of entitlement, neither is he respected nor a journalist, just chamchagiri. With you Wriddhi,โ Virender Sehwag wrote on Twitter.
Extremely sad. Such sense of entitlement, neither is he respected nor a journalist, just chamchagiri.
With you Wriddhi. https://t.co/A4z47oFtlDโ Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) February 20, 2022
Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri also threw his weight behind Saha and requested the BCCI president Ganguly to take stock of the situation. โShocking a player being threatened by a journo. Blatant position abuse. Something thatโs 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,โ he wrote.
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 https://t.co/gaRyfYVCrs
โ Ravi Shastri (@RaviShastriOfc) February 20, 2022
Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Parthiv Patel and Venkatesh Prasad also condemned the threats dished out to Saha.
Now, the BCCI has decided to investigate the matter thoroughly. โThe matter cannot be put to rest until every single detail of what Saha has said in the interview and the tweet he shared is looked into,โ a BCCI official told to a national daily.
โSaha is a contracted cricketer of the BCCI. The onus is on the Board to not let its own player down. That aside, if there is any kind of a nexus at work here, one has to look into it,โ he added.
โIf the sender of those messages indeed happens to be a journalist covering Indian cricket, the Board will take steps towards banning him,โ he concluded.
Saha last played a Test for India in 2021 against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
