New Delhi: Following his drop from the Indian squad set for the two-Test home series in Sri Lanka, Wriddhiman Saha took to social media to share am insulting message sent to him by a "journalist" who threatened to never interview him again due to lack of response.
"You did not call. Never again will I interview you. I don't take insults kindly. And I will remember this," the screenshot of the message posted on Twitter reads. "This wasn't something you should have done."
Saha hit out at the unnamed journalist, asking if this was the kind of response he deserved after his years of playing cricket for India.
"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," the cricketer tweeted. He recieved support from within the fraternity, including from Virender Sehwag, who criticised the "entitlement" of the person who had sent the message and offered his support to Saha.
"Wridhi you just name the person so that the cricket community knows who operates like this. Else even the good ones will be put under suspicion… What kind of journalism is this," tweeted Harbhajan Singh, who also tagged BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah and Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Anurag Thakur in his tweet.
The Indian Express has reported that the BCCI is considering taking action against the alleged journalist and will request Saha to reveal the name, which many other players have also suggested he do.
"...We will make sure our cricket community boycotts this so called journalist," tweeted Pragyan Ojha, former Indian spinner and representative of the Indian cricket association.
On Saturday, chairman of All-India Senior Selection Committee, Chetan Sharma, announced the squads for the Test and T20I series at home against Sri Lanka.
Senior players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma and Saha were all dropped from the Test team.
Saha took to expressing his disappointment in the selector's decision and said he was shocked by some of the comments made by Chetan Sharma, who allegedly told him that he would not be considered for the team's next Test matches either.
India take on Sri Lanka in a two-Test series with the first match slated to be played in Mohali from March 4. The second Test is scheduled to be held from March 12 at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.