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Rohit Sharma lambasts Star Sports for breach of privacy
Follow UsThe Indian captain called out Star Sports for recording his private conversation on ground and then playing it on air
It has been a few days since the Mumbai Indians (MI) campaign ended in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, but controversies have continued to pour in.
Their former skipper and opening batter Rohit Sharma took to the microblogging website ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) to express his sincere displeasure over a video of his which Star Sports telecasted.
In the video, he is seen talking to his former Mumbai and Indian teammate Dhawal Kulkarni, among a few others. Then he turns towards the camera and asks the camera person with folded hands not to record. He said, “Please aap audio band karo yaar (shut the audio off)…ek audio ne mera watt laga diya hai (one audio has already screwed me up).”
Rohit minced no words in condemning the official TV broadcaster of the IPL.
“The lives of cricketers have become so intrusive that cameras are now recording every step and conversation we are having in privacy with our friends and colleagues, at training or on match days,” his post said.
“Despite asking Star Sports to not record my conversation, it was and was also then played on air, which is a breach of privacy. The need to get exclusive content and focused only on views and engagement will one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket. Let better sense prevail.”
Star Sports is yet to respond to this public condemnation by the Indian captain.
Notably, earlier this season, another private conversation of his with Abhishek Nayar was featured in a video that was making rounds on social media. His voice was barely audible in the video. Still, it could be fairly ascertained that he expressed frustration to his former teammate and friend Abhishek Nayar, who listened closely to him.
Rohit is not the only Indian cricketer criticising Star Sports this IPL season. Earlier, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar also admonished the broadcaster on air for repeatedly featuring Virat Kohli’s rebuttal to his strike rate criticisms on the live telecast.