NEW DELHI: India captain Rohit Sharma has lashed out at Star Sports for recording and playing on air his private conversation, calling it a breach of privacy. Clearly the former Mumbai Indians captain was referring to video where he was asking the cameraman not to record his audio while talking to longtime Mumbai Ranji Trophy teammate Dhawal Kulkarni before their final league encounter against Lucknow Super Giants, the video of which went viral on social media.
In the video, Rohit was seen pleading with folded hands not to record his audio. “Bhai audio bandh karo, Kasamse, ek audio ne mera waat laga dia (Bro, don’t record the audio. One such audio screwed me),” Rohit was heard as saying.
Despite Rohit’s warning, the broadcasters went with the video on air during a pre-match show on the match-day, which irritated him. “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,” Rohit posted on social media platform ‘X’.
“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,” the post added.
Earlier, Rohit encountered controversy when his conversation with Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach and former Mumbai teammate Abhishek Nayar went viral on social media. The video was shared by KKR’s social media handles but the Kolkata-franchise was forced to take it down later.
Earlier, former India captain and currently working as a commentator in IPL 2024, Sunil Gavaskar, attacked Star Sports live on-air for repeatedly showing Virat Kohli’s post-match speech where the RCB star took a dig at the ‘outside noise’. Here ‘outside noise’ was refereed to the commentators who spoke about Kohli strike rate in one of the matches in the ongoing IPL 2024.
