A day after India skipper Rohit Sharma lashed out at IPL broadcasters Star Sports for airing his conversations for “views and engagement” despite him requesting them not to, the broadcaster denied airing the audio of any personal conversation involving the cricketer.
A video shared by Kolkata Knight Riders on May 11, featuring Rohit and KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, in which the former was purportedly seen contemplating his future at the Mumbai Indians, had gone viral on May 11. KKR subsequently deleted the video from its social media pages.
On May 16, Rohit was seen having a chat with former Mumbai teammate Dhawal Kulkarni ahead of MI’s fixture against Lucknow Super Giants. The opener requested the broadcaster to turn off the audio when he noticed that the cameras were once again directed towards him.
On Sunday, Rohit accused the channel of airing a private conversation but Star denied the charge in a statement.
“The clip, taken during a training session on May 16 at Wankhede stadium, for which Star Sports had authorised access, momentarily showed the senior player in conversation with his friends on the sidelines. No audio from this conversation was either recorded or broadcast.”
“The clip, which only showed the senior player requesting for the audio of his conversation to not be recorded, got featured in Star Sports’ live coverage of pre-match preparations and lacked editorial relevance beyond this,” the channel stated.
Rohit had called for restraint while recording on-field moments in a statement on his social media handle. “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,” Rohit said.
The channel said it was committed to protecting players’ privacy.
“Respect for players’ privacy while bringing fans, moments of intense action and preparations, sits at the core of this ethos, which the broadcaster remains committed to,” it stated.