BCCI: 'We will speak to Saha and want to know if he was threatened'

The BCCI will ask wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha to explain a tweet he posted on Saturday, which alleged that a journalist took an aggressive tone with him after Saha did not respond to a request for an interview.

On Saturday, Saha, who had been dropped from the Indian team for the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka, had taken to Twitter to publish a screenshot of messages that a "respected" journalist had sent him on WhatsApp. The screenshot in question had the sender requesting Saha "to do an interview with me", to which Saha did not respond. The messages eventually took a more aggressive tone: "You did not call. Never again will I interview you. I don't take insults kindly. And I will remember this. This wasn't something ypu should have done."

1/3- I was hurt and offended. I thought not to tolerate such kind of behaviour and didn't want anyone to go through these kind of bullying. I decided I will go out and expose the chat in public eye, but not his/her name

— Wriddhiman Saha (@Wriddhipops) February 22, 2022

Following the tweet, several former players and coaches such as Ravi Shastri, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag, came to Saha's support, urging him to reveal the name of the journalist.

"Yes, we will ask Wriddhiman about his tweet and what is the real incident that has happened," the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal told PTI. "We need to know if he was threatened and also the background and context of his tweet. I can't say anything more. The secretary (Jay Shah) will certainly speak to Wriddhiman."

Saha, however, later said he would not reveal the name of the journalist to the board.

"I haven't received any communication from the BCCI yet," Saha told the Indian Express. "If they ask me to reveal the name (of the journalist), I would tell them it was never my intention to harm somebody's career, to pull a person down. That's why I didn't reveal the name in my tweet. That's not the teaching of my parents. The main purpose of my tweet was to expose the fact that there's someone in the media who does such things, disrespecting a player's wish.

"It wasn't fair, which I wanted to tell through my tweets. He who has done it knows it very well. I posted those tweets because I didn't want the players to face such things. I wanted to convey the message that what has been done was wrong and no one else should do it again."

Saha, who has played 40 Tests, was told by head coach Rahul Dravid after the tour of South Africa that the team would be moving on from him and that he could take a decision on his career.

Saha had revealed the dressing room conversations with Dravid but the head coach said that "he was not hurt" as he respects the cricketer and just wanted to give him a clear picture on his position with honesty and clarity.

Saha had also claimed that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had texted him to assure that he would never be dropped from the team till he was at the helm of affairs.