A junior support staff of the Indian cricket team was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” by a female hotel employee in Antigua. However, the incident dismissed as a “case of mistaken identity” by the BCCI. Former team manager Sunil Subramaniam has claimed during the West Indies tour. In a mail to the Committee of Administrators (CoA) on September 25, Subramaniam first complained about the incident before withdrawing his behaviour. Although an incident did take place in the team hotel, it was a case of mistaken identity and Subramaniam came out blame-free after the inquiry by Antigua Police.

“It was found out to be a case of mistaken identity once an inquiry was done. The staff with whom the alleged misbehaviour happened was shown photographs of all the support staff members but she didn’t identify any of them,” a senior BCCI official told PTI. “Also the room number that was provided didn’t belong to any member of the Indian contingent.”

Subramaniam’s tenure ended with the West Indies tour. In his mail to the CoA, Subramaniam shared that the matter was hushed up and that the inquiry had confirmed who was guilty.

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“…the concerned member is still very much a part of the Indian team,” wrote Subramanian in the letter he later withdrew. Investigation by the Hotel management, Antiguan Police, Roland Holder of Cricket West Indies and myself along with the team Security manager and logistics manager did confirm that it was indeed a member of the support staff,’ he said.

“The matter was handled in such a manner that the team and more importantly the concerned member of the team was spared any embarrassment from any entity that would exploit it for obvious reasons. The hotel made a request that we internally take measures to correct such inappropriate behaviour,” he added in the mail. The inaction of the BCCI on a matter as grave as this is beyond belief,” he told.

In the second mail, while he was withdrawing his complaint, Sunil Subramanian said: “It is never my intention to attack any individual personally. As regards the indiscretion of support staff mentioned, it would be best if he has a word spoken to on not to repeat such indiscretions in future.”

However, Girish Dongre has replaced Sunil Subramaniam as the new administrative manager of the Indian team.