Crossing the boundary

French tennis player Maxime Hamou has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, as the wildcard entrant at Roland Garros has now been banned from the tournament for attempting to kiss and grope a female television journalist forcefully.

Maxime grabbed Maly Thomas, a reporter from Eurosport during an interview, after he crashed out of the tournament in first round. But this is not the only case where a male sportsperson was criticised for crossing the line — cricketer Chris Gayle was previously banned from Big Bash League after his infamous ‘Don’t Blush Baby’ remark to a female sports reporter.

Rochelle Rao

Why would high-level sportspersons in the public eye even dare to get frisky with female anchors?

Archana Vijaya, who was a part of this year’s Extraaa Innings T20 show, strongly condemns the action of Maxime, while she also praises the female reporter for handling the situation well. “It’s definitely inappropriate to say the least! I can only imagine how embarrassed Maly Thomas may have been, but since you are live on television, you try to keep it together — kudos to her for handling it with dignity,” Archana states.

Post the incident, Maly, in an interview with Huffington Post, ragingly remarked, “If I hadn’t been live on air, I would have punched him.”

Archana Vijaya

On the other hand, Rochelle Rao, claims that she has never experienced a situation like this in her career. “I can’t really comment on this incident, because I’ve not seen the video. But I have never experienced anything like this in my career so far — in most cases, the sportspersons I’ve met, know where to draw their lines, and are courteous and  professional during work,” says Rochelle.