Letter to BS: It is high time BCCI issued a gag order on cricket players

This refers to your editorial ‘Late cuts from BCCI’ (January 16). Cricket was once a gentleman’s game, when cricketers played the game for the sheer pride of representing their countries. When a Sunil Gavaskar or a Bishen Singh Bedi spoke to the press, it was only about the game; never about their personal lives, or gossip about others.

However, times have changed. With the advent of shorter formats, the sport has become a money spinner, with glamour and glitter added in good measure. With money and fame going to the heads of cricketers at an impressionable age, it is but natural for some present day players to get carried away and speak their mind. As a result, they unnecessarily land themselves in trouble, as seems to have happened in the case of KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya, during the talk show Koffee with Karan. 

The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) has rightly taken exception to the sexist and misogynistic comments made by the said cricketers, suspended them from all forms of the game, besides recalling them from their tour of Australia. However, as rightly pointed out in your editorial, with the unconditional apologies tended by the players, the proper course of action would be to send them for counselling and then reinstate them. Subjecting them to a prolonged and a pointless enquiry would serve no purpose, other than satisfying the ego of the powers that be at the BCCI.

It is also high time the board issued a gag order on the players and strictly told them to let their bat and ball do all the talking.

V Jayaraman
USA