The Indian players involved in an altercation with fans at a St Lucia pub during the World Twenty20 can brace themselves up for a tough grilling from the Board of Control for Cricket in India

BCCI in no mood to let erring players off the hook

The Indian players involved in an altercation with fans at a St Lucia pub during the World Twenty20 can brace themselves up for a tough grilling from the Board of Control for Cricket in India. They would have got an indication of it yesterday when their attempt to say 'sorry' via a text message was dismissed summarily by the BCCI officials.

It is learnt that the six players -- Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla and Zaheer Khan -- on receiving the show cause notice issued by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, immediately responded by sayingu00a0 'sorry' in a text message to senior Board officials.

The officials messaged back saying, "'no sorry', whatever you have to say, submit in writing".

It is learnt that some players defied orders and visited a pub at Rodney Bay after their loss in the Super Eights game to Sri Lanka on May 11. The Board had instructed the players not to step out of their hotel rooms after 9.30 pm without permission from manager Ranjib Biswal.

All the players have been sent different notices. Most answers have been asked of Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra and Ravindra Jadeja.

The common question to all is about what happened at the pub.

The Board biggies are keen to know why a bouncer was called to intervene in the argument and why the players reacted to the fans' abuse at the pub.

The players are under pressure to answer to the notice as they know that their version of the alleged incident has to match with what the Board has heard.

Even if one player offers a different version then all the players could be in trouble. In any case, the Board will not be taking the players' versions at face value.

They are prepared to go to any extent to verify details. A source said that if the Board felt the need to check facts, they will even talk to the management of the pub, Tequila Joe's.

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