Rohit Sharma comments on privacy shine light on changing media landscape

Indian cricketers avoid establishment clashes

Indian cricketers tend to shy away from clashes with the establishment in the same way that Count Dracula was rumoured to run from a Crucifix. A generation ago, Dilip Vengsarkar was stripped of the India captaincy after a battle of wills with the cricket board centered on an unscheduled trip to the United States of America.

India remains the only major cricket-playing nation without a robust players’ body, and the game’s stars have generally stayed away from taking controversial or political stances.

Rohit Sharma’s outburst on X on Sunday was therefore completely unexpected. “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,” he wrote. “Despite asking ***** [channel name omitted] 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.”

Those are strong words, especially from someone who has led India in every format over the last few years, in addition to being the only man to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) six times. But so intertwined are the worlds of cricket and big business these days that the first cynical reaction on seeing the tweet was to think that Rohit is currently employed by a conglomerate that run a rival broadcasting platform.

But whatever be the motive, the words cut deep. They go to the heart of the rules of engagement that have been in place for decades. Channel 9, which revolutionised cricket coverage in Australia more than four decades ago, were the first to trial stump microphones to give viewers a feeling of what it was like in the middle. But they would be switched off as soon as the ball was played, or missed, and the general public didn’t get to hear on-field banter.

What Rohit is complaining about wasn’t even that. It was the sort of private chat that journalists have been privy to for years – inside aircraft, in hotel corridors and restaurants and bars. The unwritten rule was that you didn’t write about what you heard. The players too had a right to a private life.

But with personal YouTube channels and paid promotions on social media, those lines are increasingly blurred. If players’ partners can post videos of off-field team moments and document private living spaces – and earn money for it – why the handwringing over a broadcaster trying to extract a few dollars more from a deal that they paid billions for?

This isn’t a debate that will end any time soon. But it’s also one Rohit is unlikely to win.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz