New Delhi, Mar 3: BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia on Monday slammed Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed for questioning India captain Rohit Sharma’s captaincy credentials and fitness levels, saying it was very unfortunate for a responsible person to pass such a trivial comment in the middle of the national team’s Champions Trophy campaign.
India have reached the semifinals of the ICC event and play Australia in the semifinal in Dubai on Tuesday. They beat New Zealand on Sunday to top their group.
“Very unfortunate for a responsible person to pass such a trivial comment when the team is in the midst of such a marquee ICC tournament. It may have demoralizing effect on an individual or the team,” Saikia told PTI.
“All the players are performing to their highest potential and results are visible. I hope individuals shall desist from making such derogatory statements for personal publicity sake at the cost of National Interest,” he added.
Shama caused a stir on social media with a controversial post directed at the Indian captain.
Acknowledging her comments were out of line, Congress asked Shama to delete the post from her ‘X’ account.
In her now-deleted post, Shama said Rohit is “fat for a sportsman”. “Need to lose weight! And of course the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had!”
Former India spinner Dilip Doshi was not happy with the comments directed to Rohit.
“People are allowed to have their opinions, but to voice them, and to air them, would be even worse, so let people keep their opinions with themselves,” Doshi told PTI Videos.
“Rohit is not your classical, athletic, young, modern look of a cricketer, but Rohit plays with enormous talent, and he is very fit for what he does. Is Rohit cricketing fit? Yes he is,” said Doshi who played 33 Tests and 15 ODIs from 1979 to 1983.
“Many cricketers look gym fit, but are not cricket fit. So for me a cricketer has to be essentially cricket fit, and not necessarily gym fit. Gym fitness is bringing a lot of injuries which was not there earlier,” he added. (PTI)
