Wriddhiman Saha breaks silence on reporter threat case

Veteran Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha on Monday admitted that he would not reveal the identity of the journalist, who threatened him for an interview, to the BCCI when communicated over the tweet he shared on the messages.

“After all of my contributions to Indian cricket..this is what I face from a so called “Respected” journalist! This is where the journalism has gone,” Saha tweeted on Saturday, the evening he was dropped from the Indian Test squad, with screenshots of messages sent by a journalist who forced him for an interview before threatening him.

Earlier on Monday, BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal told PTI that the board will ask Wriddhiman to reveal the identity of the reporter and the context in which those messages were sent.

“Yes, we will ask Wriddhiman about his tweet and what is the real incident that has happened. 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,” Dhumal said.

However, Wriddhiman doesn’t wish to name the journalist if and when asked by the BCCI, explaining that his purpose was to expose the act on social media and not harm anyone’s career.

“I haven’t received any communication from the BCCI yet. 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,” he told The Indian Express.

He added: “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.”

Wriddhiman received support over the matter from former cricketers including ex-India head coach Ravi Shastri and Virender Sehwag. He also revealed that former cricketer Pragyan Ojha, who is presently the Indian Cricketers Association’s (ICA) representative on the IPL Governing Council, had called him.

“Ojha called me and said, ‘I won’t ask you about anything which is personal. If you feel that you want to go further on this or pursue the matter legally, the BCCI would support you’. I told him that at the moment I wasn’t willing and gave him the reasons. He responded to it saying, it was completely my decision,” he said.