Hyderabad: India skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday accused Star Sports of breaching his privacy days after he had asked a camera person on the ground to not record his conversation.
In a post on X, Rohit slammed the broadcaster for going ahead with recording and playing on air his conversation, despite him asking it not to do so. "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. 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 focus only on views and engagement will one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket. Let better sense prevail (sic)," Rohit posted on his X handle.
Earlier on May 11, Rohit was seen making a request to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to shut down the audio while recording him after his chat with Abhishek Nayar. The conversation between the two took place before Mumbai Indians IPL fixture against KKR.
The audio of the chat was posted by KKR on their social media handle and fans assumed that the cricketer is speaking about leaving MI after the ongoing season. Following the controversy, the video was taken down by the Knight Riders' social media team.
A few days after that, on May 17, Rohit was once again seen having a chat with Dhawal Kulkarni ahead of MI's fixture against Lucknow Super Giants. Seeing himself being recorded, the opener, with folded hands, requested the broadcaster to turn off the audio as one audio had already got him into trouble.
"Bhai audio band karo haan, already ek audio ne mera waat laga diya (Brother please close the audio, one audio has already made things difficult for me)," said Sharma in the video that also went viral. The video was before the start of the MI's final home game and of the season at the Wankhede Stadium.
Star Sports make an average of 50 posts on their X handle and most of them are videos. However, all this content is from the match or their exclusively recorded content with former cricketers and experts.
Notably, Rohit's team Mumbai Indians (MI) had a disappointing Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign under the leadership of new captain Hardik Pandya, who had made his return to the Blue and Gold side following a great stint with Gujarat Titans (GT) from 2022-23, which also involved winning the title in the franchise's debut season.
MI finished at the bottom of the points table with four wins, 10 losses and eight points. Rohit had a decent season with the bat, scoring 417 runs at an average of 32.07 and a strike rate of 150. He scored a century and fifty, with the best score of an unbeaten 105.
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