The controversy surrounding Virat Kohli’s abusive behaviour with an Indian journalist refused to subside on Wednesday despite the team management’s efforts to play it down with complaints being made to the ICC and BCCI about the episode.

The BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur said that it was a case of misunderstanding and the issue should be put to rest immediately to let the team focus on the World Cup.

“He (Kohli) has clarified on the issue. For India, the ongoing World Cup is very important. We need to put all these issues to rest and indirectly has communicated that he misunderstood the situation. Let’s put this matter to an end,” Thakur told PTI today when asked about the incident.

“In future I think these kind of incidents should be avoided and taken care of. I have not spoken to players yet, the team management is there, taking care of all the players’ needs,” said the 40-year-old, who was elected as BCCI secretary at the board’s AGM held in Chennai on Sunday.

The team management issued a brief statement saying that, “there was a misunderstanding and no abusive language was used. Virat has spoken to the concerned gentleman immediately and matter ends.”

However, the Hindustan Times, whose reporter was abused by Kohli, has filed complaints with the ICC and the BCCI.

“I have written a letter to the BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya after consulting our Editor-in-Chief. I have asked Dalmiya to look into the incident. The reporter in question, Jasvinder Sidhu, has also informed the ICC about the incident,” HT Sports Editor Sukhwant Basra said.

The newspaper is also examining whether Kohli had violated any law applicable in that country and could consider the option of legal action against the star cricketer.

Kohli suddenly lost his cool after the training session in Perth yesterday as he hurled abuses at a journalist ahead of the side’s group league game against West Indies at the WACA on Friday.

Once he was done with his training and was returning to the dressing room, India’s premier batsman saw a scribe of a national daily in front of him.

To the horror of that journalist, Kohli started using filthiest of language and it went on for some time before he stormed off and some of the Indian team members looked amazed as to what exactly had happened.

The particular journalist also seemed clueless but once Kohli cooled down, he told someone about an article that had appeared about him and his girlfriend Anushka Sharma in a national daily and he thought that it was that particular journalist, who had written the story.

When he was told that he had mistaken this particular reporter as someone else, Kohli called one of the journalists and through him apologised for the incident.
(PTI)