IPL 2024 Rohit Sharma incident: Broadcaster says committed to protecting players’ privacy

The tussle between Indian Premier League’s official broadcaster, Star Sports and Indian team skipper Rohit Sharma continued when the broadcaster issued a statement denying airing any audio and breaching the cricketer’s privacy.

On Sunday, the star Mumbai Indians batter called out the official broadcaster for breach of privacy, saying that the need to get exclusive content will one day break the trust between fans, cricketers, and cricket.

Rohit was referring to one of his conversations being recorded and broadcasted on air, despite the batter’s request to not do so.

The former Mumbai Indians skipper was having a chat with Kolkata Knight Riders’ support staff Abhishel Nayar, after their IPL league match, which was recorded by the channel. The batter requested the camera person turn off the audio while shooting.

On Monday, Star Sports issued a clarification denying the acquisition. “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 said in a statement.

The broadcaster said it was committed to protecting the players’ privacy and respect for the players. “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,” the statement further read.

KKR had posted the conversation between Rohit and Nayar on their social media handle and it raised a lot of brouhaha about the star batter’s future with the Mumbai Indians, especially after a disastrous season that started with a change in captaincy. The franchise later deleted the video.

Rohit had taken to social media to explain the issue and said the lives of cricketers have become intrusive and someday the trust would break. “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 focused only on views and engagement will one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket. Let better sense prevail,” Rohit posted on X (formerly Twitter).

This is not the first time the official broadcaster has been under the scanner. Noted commentator Sunil Gavaskar slammed the channel for showing Virat Kohli’s interview multiple times after his slow strike rate was criticised by former players and commentators.

During a match show, Gavaskar said it would be disappointing of the channel to air the interview multiple times and it would be questioning the experts’ views. “Star Sports needs to understand they’ve shown it enough times. Everybody got the message. I’ll be very disappointed if Star Sports shows it once more. That’ll be questioning all of us commentators, not just these two (Matthew Hayden and I), those in the box, those earlier on. You’re questioning their knowledge, their expertise,” Gavaskar said.