Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, who is married to Indian skipper Virat Kohli, shut down media reports which claimed that members of the Indian cricket team selection committee fetched cups of tea for her during ICC World Cup 2019.
Taking to her social media, the actress said that while she has maintained her silence on such matters over the years, the reason she has decided to speak out now isn't because she's upset over the latest incident but because she doesn't want her silence to be mistaken for weakness.
The 31-year-old actor said that people spread lies repeatedly so that it looks like the truth and she was afraid of that.
"My name has been used in fabricated stories claiming that I am part of closed-door team meetings and influenced selection processes and I have kept silent. My name has been wrongfully used to say how I have been given preferential treatment or how I have overstayed my authorised time with my husband on foreign tours which if anyone really cared about finding facts from the board, would know that I have always and always followed protocol but yet. I kept quiet," she said.
Even before Kohli and Anushka tied the knot, she was made the scapegoat for Kohli's poor performance on an Australian tour, with bizarre suggestions which linked her mere presence in the stands to Kohli's inability to perform.
"It's not like this last piece of 'news' has upset me more and that's why I have decided to break my silence. They have all been as regressive and horrible and malicious and vicious. So, don't take this letter as my retort to this 'news'," Anushka wrote.
The PK actor signed off her statement with a cheeky remark, setting the record straight by highlighting that she drinks coffee.
Post, this, an old tweet of Anushka has surfaced online where she is seen saying that she loves to drink tea, but at home. This was a part of an interaction wherein the actress answered questions asked by her fans.
The controversy erupted after former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer came down heavily on the senior national selection committee, saying all that the selectors were doing during the World Cup in England earlier this year was getting Anushka Sharma "cups of tea", according to a report in the Times Of India.
"I didn't even know one of the selectors during the World Cup and I asked him who the hell he was, because he was wearing the India blazer and he said he was one of the selectors. All they were doing was getting Anushka Sharma cups of tea," Engineer said.
Post Anushka’s response, Engineer said that the comment was made in jest and that he never intended to demean Anushka.
"I just said it in a jest and its being made a mountain out of a molehill. Poor Anushka has been dragged into it, she is a lovely girl. Virat Kohli is a brilliant captain and coach Ravi Shastri is extremely good. The entire matter is being blown up unnecessarily. It turned out to be a selector as he was wearing an all India blazer", Engineer told Republic TV.
