County club Durham have issued a statement, citing that they "will speak" to head coach James Franklin over historical bullying charges labelled against him by India spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

Franklin and Chahal were part of the Mumbai Indians (MI) set-up during the Champions League T20 tournament in 2011 and the latter alleged that the New Zealander and Andrew Symonds left him tied up and gagged for an entire night.

"It happened in 2011 when Mumbai Indians won the Champions League. We were in Chennai. He [Symonds] had had a lot of 'fruit juice' (laughs). I don't know what he was thinking, but he and James Franklin got together and tied my hands and legs,” Chahal said in an RCB Podcast a couple of months back.

"They were so lost that they taped my mouth and forgot about me completely during the party. Then they all left and, in the morning, someone came to clean [the room] and saw me, and called a few others and untied me,” he added.

"They asked me since when I had been there, and I said, 'I've been here the whole night'. So that became a funny story," he continued.

The wrist-spinner answered in negative when asked whether any of the two cricketers ever apologized to him.

While Chahal had revealed the incident some months ago, it has now come back to the news as he recently narrated how a drunk MI player once hung him from the 15th floor balcony of the hotel. In order to avoid any controversy, he didn’t disclose the identity of that cricketer.

In a statement, Durham said they will speak privately with all parties to "determine the facts".

"We are aware of recent news reports surrounding an incident in 2011 which name a member of our staff," the statement said, as quoted by the BBC.

"As with any matters involving employees, the club will speak privately with all parties involved to determine the facts."

(With BBC inputs)