Centurion, South Africa: As if the overdose of bouncers wasn't enough for Team India to feel intimidated by South African pacers, a local broadcaster SuperSport rubbed salt on wounds by showing clipping of Virat Kohli being hit by Morne Morkel's delivery in the first ODI. This was enough for Indian coach Duncan Fletcher to call the producer and give him a piece of his mind.
During third ODI when play stopped due to rain this channel kept showing footage of Virat Kohli getting hit on the rib-cage by a Morne Morkel bouncer in the first ODI of the series.
This irked Duncan Fletcher who gave the Vukile Majola, junior producer, SuperSport, a dressing down during the innings break of the third ODI in Centurion.
Wednesday's match was called off after rain played spoilsport. South Africa posted 301/8 before thunderstorms hit Centurion. India did not face even a ball and because there was no scope of live action, the channel played out recordings of the visiting batsmen's struggles in the series opener.
Kohli, the world's most prolific ODI batsman, was shown nursing his wounds with an ice-pack. The channel also showed the right-hander practising the pull a shot he couldn't execute to perfection on that delivery. The broadcaster rubbed it in by captioning the sequence: ‘Kohli – softened up'.
The junior producer was called in to dressing room and was asked for an explanation, and blasted for ‘inappropriate behaviour' and ‘disrespect'. He was also ordered to ‘stick to the cricket' in future.
However Team India media manager Dr RN Baba said that the channel's director was called to the dressing room but we asked for were the clips of our bowlers in the series. There was no controversy whatsoever.
