When Hardik Pandya was banned by BCCI for his unpleasant comments against women on Koffee With Karan

Hardika Pandya and Natasa Stankovic

Filmmaker Karan Johar's chat show 'Koffee With Karan' is popular. The show sees celebrity guests in attendance as Karan shoots questions their way, some personal and some related to their work. The spicy nature of the show often led to some controversial statements from the guests that made headlines. But guests never faced outright consequences in their work life as cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul did when they appeared on the talk show.

On the show in 2019, Hardik Pandya boasted about seeing multiple women and also how 'open' he had been about it with his parents.

His actual quotes were "At a party, my parents asked me tera wala [your women] kaun sa hai so I said yeh, yeh, yeh [pointing out to some women] and they were like 'waah, proud of u beta'," he said.

Pandya also revealed how he informed his parents when he lost his virginity: "I came home and said, 'Main karke aya hai aaj'. Pandya made another unpleasant comment when he was asked how they decided if they all hit on the same woman. "'Talent pe hota hai. Jisko mila woh leke jao' [it's based on your talent. Whoever gets it, takes it," he said.

Some of Pandya's comments were also laced with racism. When Johar asked him why he didn't ask women's names at nightclubs, he replied: "I like to watch and observe how they move. I'm a little from the black side, so I need to see how they move."

He also claimed that given his rapper-like image, he actually asked his parents if he was their child. He claimed he asked his parents: "Are you sure I'm your child? You haven't swapped me with someone from the West Indies because I do get influenced by the West Indies and the black culture."

Hardik Pandya's public apology:

After the show aired on TV, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul received huge criticism on Twitter and other platforms. After the backlash and seeing the gravity of the situation, Hardik Pandya issued a public apology on his Instagram handle. But the apology was not able to silence the angry public as BCCI decided to step in to take a tough stand in the matter.

BCCI immediately suspended both cricketers from the India-Australia ODI series and the duo were summoned back to India from Australia.

The Khar Gymkhana revoked the honorary three-year membership of Hardik Pandya in the wake of his controversial appearance on Karan Johar's chat show.

Pandya was granted membership at the suburban club since he fared well on the international cricket circuit. According to Gaurav Kapadia, the honorary general secretary of the gymkhana, Pandya copped a lot of flak on the Gymkhana's Facebook and other social media pages especially from the women members, who expressed their angst at Pandya's derogatory comments concerning women.