The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is going to investigate the statements given by keeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha to the media lately and also the threat received by him from a journalist of which he shared the message screenshots.
Well-placed individuals in the know told Times of India (TOI) that "the 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".
The BCCI intends to probe deep into the crisis and also find out if any other cricketer has gone through a similar experience.
"Saha 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," say officials tracking these developments.
Saha shouldn’t have made conversation with BCCI chief public, says Snehasish Ganguly
"First the Virat incident happened, then all this. And then he's (Saha) posted that tweet of the screenshot (of messages he received from a journalist). What the h*** is happening? The Board has to act because enough is enough," say those tracking developments.
Saha had also shared screenshots of a WhatsApp chat in which a journalist had threatened him after he didn’t pick a call about an interview. BCCI will approach Saha and ask him to share the WhatsApp messages following which a forensic investigation will be called for.
"If the sender of those messages indeed happens to be a journalist covering Indian cricket, the Board will take steps towards banning him," an official said.
The Board's bigger worry here is stemming from the fact that there could be more cricketers going through similar trauma. "It is also important to see if anybody else has gone through this," he added.
Apart from the journalist threats, the BCCI officials are not happy about Saha's claims of president Sourav Ganguly assuring him of his place in the Indian squad till the time he was at the helm of the affairs. This stems from an interview Saha gave to ESPNCricinfo.
Saha told ESPNCricinfo: "The biggest shock was that when I scored 61 against New Zealand in Kanpur despite being injured, Dadi (as BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is referred to), texted to congratulate me and said I didn't need to worry about anything till he is there. Naturally, I was shocked at what I was told immediately one series after."
Now, several BCCI officials are now questioning how can Ganguly assure Saha of his place in the Indian team.
"The Rahul Dravid-bit is understandable. He's the national coach and may have wanted to keep his players in the loop. That's between the coach and the players. What was the need for a BCCI official to speak with Saha and assure him of a place in the side? 'I don't need to worry till he's there'. Kitni galat baat hai yeh (How wrong it is to say something like this)," officials add.
(Times of India inputs)
