Wriddhiman Saha is often considered to be the finest Test wicket-keeper in the cricketing world.
Saha, who has been forced to spend time on the bench after the Indian team management promoted Rishabh Pant for his swashbuckling batting, was dropped from the Indian team for the Sri Lanka Tests on Saturday, an indication that his India career is at an end.
His exclusion for the coming series against Sri Lanka came hours before Saha revealed how he was threatened by a journalist after turning down an interview request.
'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,' Saha tweeted along with a screenshot of his chat with the journalist.
The journalist was miffed that Saha did not respond to his request for an interview.
'You did not call. Never again will I interview you. I don't take insults kindly. And I will remember this,' the journalist told the Bengal cricketer.
Virender Sehwag was among the many who came out in Saha's support. 'Extremely sad. Such sense of entitlement, neither is he respected nor a journalist, just chamchagiri. With you Wriddhi,' Viru tweeted.
Harbhajan Singh called on Saha to name the journalist. 'Wridhi you just name the person so that the cricket community knows who operates like this. Else even the good ones will be put under suspicion.. What kind of journalism is this ? @BCCI @Wriddhipops @JayShah @SGanguly99 @ThakurArunS players should be protected,' Harbhajan tweeted.
'Wriddhiman Saha has in his own way exposed the dark side which a player has to deal with outside of the BCCI,' tweeted former senior BCCI official Ratnakar Shetty.
After being dropped from the Test team on Saturday, Saha revealed that the team management headed by Head Coach Rahul Dravid had told him to think about 'retirement' as he would not be considered for selection henceforth.
'The team management had told me that I would not be considered henceforth. I could not tell this so long as I was part of the Indian team set-up,' Saha told the media on Saturday.
'Even Coach Rahul Dravid suggested that I think about taking retirement,' Saha revealed.
He also exposed BCCI President Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, whom he claimed had assured him that he should not worry about his place in the team.
'When I hit an unbeaten 61 taking a pain-killer in the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur last November, Dada (as Ganguly is referred to by Bengal players) congratulated me over WhatsApp,' Saha stated.
'He even mentioned that I should not worry about anything so long as he is at the helm of the BCCI,' Saha disclosed. 'Such a message from the board president really boosted my confidence. But I failed to understand why everything changed so fast.'
