Wriddhiman Saha will not reveal name of journalist who threatened him

Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has said that he will not name the journalist who threatened and abused him for not giving an interview after he was axed from the cricket team.

Saha had tweeted that an unnamed journalist had threatened and abused him over WhatsApp demanding an interview with him. He had posted screenshots of the communication on his Twitter account.

Following the incident, BCCI officials had said that they would look into the matter and ask Saha who that person was.

However, Saha, on Tuesday (February 22), told The Indian Express that he would not reveal the name of the journalist.

“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 daily.

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.”

Saha, 37, was apparently told by Indian team coach Rahul Dravid that he was being dropped from the Test team for the upcoming Sri Lanka series.

Saha had been told to look for other options if he wanted to, indicating that he won’t be looked to for future selections as the selection panel was looking at grooming younger talent for the future of the Indian team.

Soon after, he received a message from the journalist, which he posted on Twitter, saying, “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.”

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. pic.twitter.com/woVyq1sOZX

— Wriddhiman Saha (@Wriddhipops) February 19, 2022

Several cricketers expressed support to Saha after the journalist’s comments, with former coach Ravi Shastri and opener Virender Sehwag seeking intervention from the BCCI.

Shocking a player being threatened by a journo. Blatant position abuse. Something that's happening too frequently with #TeamIndia. Time for the BCCI PREZ to dive in. Find out who the person is in the interest of every cricketer. This is serious coming from ultimate team man WS https://t.co/gaRyfYVCrs

— Ravi Shastri (@RaviShastriOfc) February 20, 2022

India spinner Pragyan Ojha, who is representative of the Indian Cricketers Association’s (ICA) on the IPL Governing Council, said he would take up the matter as per what Saha says.

“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,” Saha said.

Please name him wriddhi! I promise you as a representative of players, I will make sure our cricket community boycotts this so called journalist!! https://t.co/XmorYAyGvW

— Pragyan Ojha (@pragyanojha) February 20, 2022

Saha had not played the Ranji Trophy due to personal reasons.

“My opting out has nothing to do with the (Indian) team selection. I opted out due to personal reasons. My wife has been recovering from dengue and that’s the reason. But I’m keeping my options open and things can change,” he had earlier said.