05 March,2015 07:50 AM IST | | PTI
BCCI secretary wants journalist abuse issue to be put to rest so that Team India can focus on their all-important World Cup campaign
Anurag Thakur
New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur yesterday said that Virat Kohli abusing a journalist in Perth on Tuesday was a case of misunderstanding and the issue should be put to rest immediately to let the team focus on the World Cup.
Anurag Thakur
"He (Kohli) has clarified on the issue. For India, the ongoing World Cup is very important. We need to put all these issues to rest. Indirectly, Kohli has communicated that he misunderstood the situation. Let's put this matter to an end," Thakur told PTI yesterday.
"In future I think these kind of incidents should be avoided and taken care of. I have not spoken to players yet, the team management is there, taking care of all the players' needs," said the 40-year-old, who was elected as BCCI secretary at the board's AGM held in Chennai on Sunday.
Behaviour reported
However, the Hindustan Times, whose reporter was abused by Kohli, has filed complaints with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the BCCI.
"I have written a letter to the BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya after consulting our Editor-in-Chief. I have asked Dalmiya to look into the incident. The reporter in question, Jasvinder Sidhu, has also informed the ICC about the incident," HT sports editor Sukhwant Basra said.
The newspaper is also examining whether Kohli had violated any law applicable in that country and could consider the option of legal action against the star cricketer.
On Tuesday, once Kohli was done with his training and was returning to the dressing room, India's premier batsman saw a scribe of a national daily in front of him.
To the horror of that journalist, Kohli started using filthiest of language and it went on for some time before he stormed off and some of the Indian team members looked amazed as to what exactly had happened.
The particular journalist also seemed clueless but once Kohli cooled down, he told someone about an article that had appeared about him and his girlfriend Anushka Sharma in a national daily and he thought that it was that particular journalist, who had written the story.
When he was told that he had mistaken this particular reporter as someone else, Kohli called one of the journalists and through him apologised for the incident.
