Wriddhiman Saha has received an outpouring of support after sharing a screenshot of messages he received from a journalist following the Indian selection committee’s decision to remove him from the Test squad for the two-match series against Sri Lanka. Speaking to PTI, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal had said the board would investigate the matter and BCCI secretary Jay Shah “will certainly speak with Wriddhiman”. However, in an interview with The Indian Express, he said he would not reveal the journalist’s identity to the board because “it was never my intention to harm anyone’s career, to bring anyone down.”
“I have not yet received a message from the BCCI. If they ask me to reveal the name (of the journalist), I would tell them that it was never my intention to harm anyone’s career, to bring someone down. That is why I me “I didn’t reveal the name in my tweet. That is not the teaching of my parents. The main purpose of my tweet was to bring to light the fact that there is someone in the media who does such things and does not respect a player’s wish,” Saha told The Indian. Emphatically.
“It wasn’t fair, I wanted to make that clear through my tweets. Whoever did it knows very well. I posted those tweets because I didn’t want the players to face such things. I wanted to get the message across that what was done was wrong and no one else should do it again,” he added.
The 37-year-old had claimed via Twitter that a “respected journalist” took an aggressive tone after refusing to give him an interview.
After all my contributions to Indian cricket…this is what I’m dealing with from a so called “respected” journalist! This is where journalism has disappeared. pic.twitter.com/woVyq1sOZX
— Wriddhiman Saha (@Wriddhipops) February 19, 2022
People like Virender Sehwag, Ravi Shastri, Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh supported Saha.
While Shastri asked BCCI president Sourav Ganguly to intervene, Ojha and Harbhajan urged Saha to name the journalist in question.
Shocking to a player threatened by a newscast. Outrageous position abuse. Something that happens too often with #TeamIndia† Time for the BCCI PREZ to dive in. Find out who is the person for the sake of every cricketer. This is seriously from ultimate team man WS https://t.co/gaRyfYVCrs
— Ravi Shastri (@RaviShastriOfc) February 20, 2022
Please call him wriddhi! As a player’s representative, I promise to make sure our cricket community boycotts this so-called journalist!! https://t.co/XmorYAyGvW
— Pragyan Ojha (@pragyanojha) February 20, 2022
Wridhi you just call the person so the cricket community knows who works like that. Otherwise, even the good ones become suspicious. What kind of journalism is this? @BCCI @Wriddhipops @JayShah @SGanguly99 @ThakurArunS players must be protected https://t.co/sIkqtIHsvt
— Harbhajan Turban (@harbhajan_singh) February 20, 2022
The Indian squads for the Test and T20I series were announced on Saturday. Saha along with veteran stars Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma were all removed from the test squad.
Saha later revealed that team management led by head coach Rahul Dravid had told him to think about “retirement” as he will no longer be considered for selection.
The wicketkeeper batter also said Ganguly had messaged him after his battle hit 61 in the first Test against New Zealand at Kanpur in November, assuring him of a place on the team “as long as I’m here (the BCCI to the helm)”.
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India will take on Sri Lanka at home in a series of two tests starting on March 4.
(with PTI inputs)
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