DNA Edit: Piquant situation - Pandya and Rahul need to be warned, not punished

It is a piquant situation for sportsmen to get into. Cricket all-rounder Hardik Pandya and his team buddy KL Rahul, more known for their exploits on the field, are now drawing infamy off it.

In a joint interview to celebrity chat host Karan Johar, host of ‘Koffee with Karan’, Pandya was at his politically incorrect best. “I did it today,” he told his parents, upon losing his virginity, he proudly informed his host. Then in another vignette, he told Johar how he liked to “watch and observe how they (women) move. I am a little from the black side, so I need to see how they move.”

While the connection between the complexion of an individual and staring at women is not exactly clear, these and other similar observations, deemed ‘misogynist’, ‘sexist’ and ‘crass’, have got the two in big trouble. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been forced to send show cause notices to both cricketers. Pandya has immediately backed off expressing regrets, while Rahul’s reaction is not yet known.

There are a couple of points, which merit a mention here. One, the format of Johar’s chatty talk show is meant to provoke, more suited to interviewing a film star rather than a sportsman. The questions are heavily sexist, making it mandatory for those replying, to answer in the same vein. But entertainment being the leitmotif of the idiot box, both cricketers and Bollywood stars now come in the same bracket.

The second point is should sportsmen agree to such shows? Obviously, the jury is going to be out on this one, because in a free society, it is difficult to decide upon who wants to go where. But all things said and done, the BCCI should take a lenient view, because more than anything else, it is a first-time offence, even though there is a good chance that Pandya, along with Rahul would be handed out a one or two-match ban.

With adequate regrets being expressed, there is no need to doubt a sports person’s integrity. Sure, if there is a repeat, action would become due. By not condoning the interview, the BCCI has raised the red flag and it is like a warning to players, who know the limits of what they can say in a public interview.

The BCCI is understandably incensed, with some members preferring a one or two match ban on the players. It is another matter - and no small irony - that the show cause notice to Pandya and Rahul was issued by its CEO, who himself is facing charges of sexual misconduct.

It is also important not to sit on moral judgement on celebrities (of all people) because Indian society itself is in the throes of change when licentious behaviour has become a hallmark of having arrived in life. The mores of living are such that a celebrity is not celebrity enough if he does not talk rashly.

If in the process, a sportsperson careens out of control, and gets carried away by the occasion, he surely deserves another chance. Sportspersons, it would be fair to assume, are too focused on their careers.