BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia defends Rohit Sharma after review meeting, says 'don't fodder to rumours'

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia has dismissed reports of Rohit Sharma’s possible international retirement. Since the Australia series last year, there have been plenty of reports of the Mumbai cricketer possibly calling his time and that he is no longer in the scheme of things. The talks only intensified after he flopped in the first two ODIs against England, but in the third match at Lord’s, he silenced the critics with an incredible century.

After the match, Saikia confirmed that Rohit remains in the plans of the selectors. However, ahead of BCCI’s review meeting, the question once again lingered. Saikia was once again asked about the possibility, to which he reminded everyone about Rohit’s form and asked everyone not to engage with rumours. 

“You must have seen he is playing brilliantly. Don’t give fodder to rumours,” Saikia told the reporters after the meeting. 

The Indian players have been subjected to multiple injuries in recent times. Even in the squad that has been announced for the three-match T20I series, four of the players are yet to



clear their fitness test. On top of that, many others, including Hardik Pandya and Akash Deep, among others are currently at the CoE, working to get back into full fitness.

Addressing that, Saikia mentioned that BCCI is functioning like a well-oiled machine and there’s no communication barrier between CoE and the officials regarding injury updates. However, he is cautious, mentioning that they need to organise the future tours accordingly as the players are playing ‘too many matches’. 

“Everybody is on the same page. BCCI is working in a very well like a well-oiled engine. There is proper coordination amongst all the wings of BCCI, whether it is women's team committees or their technical staff or their coaches, vis-à-vis the COE, vis-à-vis the Indian men's team's coaching staff and the head coach,” Saikia said. 

“There is no difficulty in the coordination; everything is moving in the right direction. The only challenge which we are facing is that there are too many matches in the year and that is why in the next FTP we will do certain things, we will take certain measures,” he added.