ICC found itself in the middle of a huge controversy after accidentally sharing an old video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Asaram Bapu on its twitter account. The tweet came moments after a Johpur Court sentenced life imprisonment to the self-styled guru for raping a 16-year-old girl in 2013.
ICC actually retweeted a post by Alt news journalist Pratik Sinha with the caption ‘Narayan Narayan’.
The video showed the self-proclaimed Godman and PM Narendra Modi sharing the stage in Gujarat. Back then, Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and Asaram had its ashram in the state.
The tweet was shared in the aftermath of Asaram's verdict given by the special SC/ST court that convened inside the Jodhpur Central Jail. Asaram was convicted of raping a 16-year old girl as was sentenced to life imprisonment.
ICC drafted an apology soon after deleting the tweet. “ICC is dismayed at a non-cricket related tweet appearing on its Twitter feed earlier today. We would like to extend our sincere apologies to anyone who was offended during the short space of time it was up,” stated ICC in its next tweet.
However, the damage was done as the cricket’s parent body was torn apart on social media. Many users of the platform asked who was handling the ICC account, and the faux pas also left the Indian Cricket Board fuming.
"This is unfortunate that an objectionable post has been attributed to the ICC official social media account. Not done. We did bring up the matter to the ICC's notice,"
ICC promised to investigate the matter. “We have launched an investigation into how this happened,” said ICC’s statement.