If they ask me to reveal the name, I would tell them it was never my intention to harm somebody’s career: Wriddhiman Saha

Wriddhiman Saha told The Indian Express that the main purpose of his tweet was to expose the fact that there’s someone in the media who does such things, disrespecting a player’s wish.

Wriddhiman Saha. (File)

5 min readKolkataFeb 23, 2022 06:13 PM IST First published on: Feb 22, 2022 at 12:11 AM IST

Wriddhiman Saha will not reveal the name of the journalist to the BCCI, as and when the cricket board communicates with him over his tweet that has become arguably Indian cricket’s biggest talking point at the moment.

On Monday, The Indian Express reported that the BCCI would ask the wicketkeeper-batsman to reveal the identity of the unnamed person who purportedly sent a string of WhatsApp messages to the cricketer, demanding an interview. Saha later posted a screenshot of the messages on his Twitter handle.

“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,” Saha told The Indian Express.

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.”

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

On Saturday, the 37-year-old was dropped from the Test team for the upcoming two-match series against Sri Lanka. The tweet was posted on the same day, capturing messages like: “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.” One of the messages from the unnamed journalist had said: “You did not call. Never again will I interview you. I don’t take insults kindly. And I will remember this.”

Saha received an outpouring of support from the cricketing fraternity after this, from Ravi Shastri to Virender Sehwag. Shastri, the former India team head coach, in fact, urged BCCI president Sourav Ganguly “to dive in”.

Saha said he didn’t have any conversation with Ganguly over the last few days. However, former India spinner Pragyan Ojha, currently the Indian Cricketers Association’s (ICA) representative on the IPL Governing Council, called him.

READ | Wriddhiman Saha flags journalist’s ‘threat’ tweets, BCCI to ask for his name

“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.

Conflicting messages

On Saturday, Saha told this paper that following his 61 not out in the first Test against New Zealand at Kanpur in November last year, he had received a WhatsApp message from Ganguly that mentioned: ‘As long as I’m here (helming the BCCI), you would be in the team’.

The #ICA has come out and strongly condemned ‘threat’ to #WriddhimanSaha https://t.co/60gIIsWjS6 pic.twitter.com/1jcgqe6fEf

— Express Sports (@IExpressSports) February 22, 2022

On Sunday, after India’s T20I series win against the West Indies, India team head coach Rahul Dravid told reporters that his conversation with Saha at the end of the South Africa tour came from his respect for the ‘keeper-batsman’s contribution to Indian cricket, as he deserved “honesty and clarity”. Dravid told Saha that the team would look to the future, bringing in a younger wicketkeeper as Rishabh Pant’s back-up. Chief selector Chetan Sharma, however, had spoken about the veteran being excluded for just two Tests against Sri Lanka, at the post-selection press conference on Saturday.

READ | Rahul Dravid on Wridhhiman Saha: ‘He deserved honesty and clarity’

Saha pulling out of the Bengal Ranji Trophy squad has been questioned, with Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) secretary Snehasish Ganguly, Sourav’s elder brother, suggesting that he might have played the tournament.

Asked about this, Saha said: “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.”

Will there be any motivation left to play cricket after this? “I play cricket because of my love for the game. As long as that is there, I will not hang up my boots. It doesn’t matter whether I’m being considered for the Indian team or my state team or my IPL side. As long as I’m enjoying the game, I will play. I won’t mind calling time on my career through club and office cricket,” Saha signed off.