The off-field dramas surrounding the ongoing India-Australia series has reached it’s boiling point after the Indian team management has accused the visiting team of breaking the protocol and leaking information and stories to media. BCCI had decided to bury the DRS saga in the Bengaluru Test just before two days but this incident will surely have an adverse effect on the last match of the series.

According to a report in Times of India, the Indian camp feels that Aussie team manager Gavin Dovey and media manager Kete Hutchison had a meeting with an Australian journalist and match referee Chris Broad who officiated in the Bengaluru Test.

According to the report, the meeting was finalised after Indian captain Virat Kohli indirectly accused his Australian counterpart Steve Smith of cheating during the Bengaluru Test. He looked up to the dressing room to confirm on a DRS call but the onfield umpire Nigel Llong intervened to send Smith back to the pavilion.

Kohli said that it was not the first time they did this as it was repeated at least on two more occasions when he was batting. After the incident, the Indian team management had decided to raise the issue with the higher authorities but later decided against it.

“At the end of the Bengaluru Test, Dovey went to meet Broad and he (Broad) assured him that there would be no action taken against Steve Smith. Broad assured the Australian team manager that this entire incident would not be reported by field umpire Nigel Llong,” a member of the Indian camp was quoted as saying by Times of India.

The journalist in question Ben Horne also tweeted the opinion of the onfield umpires.

“Dovey then introduced an Australian journalist to Broad and asked the latter to give him bytes on whether the dressing room review was reported or would be reported,” the report added. The same writer compared the Indian captain to US President Donald Trump in a recent article for his website.

The report also claimed that the Indian camp had accused the Australian team and their media manager of “sharing dressing room conversations with the Australian journalists from session to session, so as to pose questions to the Indian cricketers after each day’s play.”