Star Indian batsman Virat Kohli was today reprimanded by the BCCI for his abusive behaviour towards a journalist and asked him to “maintain the dignity of the team” and avoid such incidents in the future.

“The player in question (Kohli) has been told to maintain the dignity of the Indian team at all times, and avoid any such behaviour in the future,” said the newly elected BCCI secretary, Anurag Thakur, in a statement.

The statement said that Board has firmly asked the Indian team management to ensure that incident that happened post India’s practice session here on Tuesday is not repeated.

“The BCCI has taken note of the incident that occurred at Perth a couple of days ago. The BCCI has been in touch with the Indian team management on this issue, and has advised that this kind of incident should not be repeated,” said Thakur.

The BCCI’s stand on the controversy comes a day after the team management sought to down play the incident and even denied that Kohli hurled abuses at a journalist of a leading newspaper. Subsequently, the newspaper decided to write to BCCI and the reporter involved lodged a complaint with the ICC.

Thakur urged the concerned parties to move on and focus on the team’s World Cup campaign.

“The BCCI respects the role played by the media in covering and popularising the game of cricket, and acknowledges the support of the media, in its mission to administer and promote the game of cricket in India.

“The BCCI would like to request the concerned parties to move on, and focus on the Indian cricket team’s campaign in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2015,” added Thakur.

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