'When the team is playing in the Champions Trophy and doing well, this is the time when one needs to support Team India.'
'These comments shouldn't be passed.'
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has come out strongly against Congress national Spokesperson Shama Mohamed for her controversial remarks about India Captain Rohit Sharma.
BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia slammed the remarks as 'baseless and derogatory', urging the nation to stand behind the team as they compete in the Champions Trophy 2025.
Pawan Khera, who heads the Congress spokesperson's panel, ordered Shama Mohamed on Monday morning to delete her tasteless tweet, but the controversy simmers on.
'These comments are baseless and derogatory,' Saikia asserted. 'When the team is playing in the Champions Trophy and doing well, this is the time when one needs to support Team India. These comments shouldn't be passed.'
BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla, who is also a senior Congress MP, came to Rohit's defence, emphasising that the captain is among the fittest cricketers.
'It is her personal views and tweets. The party has nothing to do with it. Rohit is fit and doing well. Our team is doing well under his leadership. He is a great player,' Shukla asserted.
'How can you say something like that about an international player? This is such a shameless thing to say,' Dinesh Lad, Rohit's childhood coach, told Republic TV.
'We all know Rohit's potential and how he is leading the Indian team,' Lad added.
"It was a generic tweet about the fitness of a sportsperson. It was not body-shaming. I always believed a sportsperson should be fit, and I felt he was a bit overweight, so I just tweeted about that," Shama Mohamed told ANI in her defence.
"I have been attacked for no reason. When I compared him with previous captains, I put in a statement. I have the right. What is wrong in saying? It is a democracy," she added, still not getting the point that such a post was out of sync with the mood of the nation, especially whe Rohit leads the team out on Tuesday afternoon against a tough rival in the first Champions Trophy semi-final.
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