Kohli abuse reported to ICC & BCCI

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 stated that it was a case of misunderstanding and the issue should be put to rest to let the team focus on the World Cup.

The team management issued a brief statement saying that, “there was a misunderstanding and no abusive language was used. Virat spoke with the concerned gentleman 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 on Tuesday as he hurled abuses at a journalist ahead of the side's group league game against West Indies at the WACA on Friday. 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