Under-fire Indian cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul were on Friday, 11 January, asked to return home from Australia in the wake their controversial comments during a television talk show Koffee with Karan.

The talk show is hosted by Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar.

Both Rahul and Pandya were initially included in the Indian squad for three-match One Day International (ODI) series against Australia in Down Under. However, the duo was suspended with immediate effect for their ‘sexist’ and ‘misogynistic’ comment in the talk show aired on Star World.

On late Friday evening, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in a statement, said the disgraced pair would be barred “from playing any form of cricket after their comments on a TV show”.

The statement added, “The duo will now return to India and an inquiry and proceedings will be made against them for misconduct and indiscipline that have been initiated under Rule 41 of the BCCI Constitution.”

“The All-India Senior Selection Committee will soon name their replacements for the ODI series against Australia and the tour to New Zealand,” the statement end.

The decision to suspend the duo with immediate effect comes after Diana Edulji, member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), advocated suspension of both the players until the quantum of sentence is announced.

“Based on legal opinion and till the time the final procedure is laid down to address this issue, (I) will recommend that a communication be sent to the players concerned and the team immediately,” Diana wrote in an email as per a report in IANS. “It will be imperative that the players be put under suspension till a further course of action is decided for this misconduct.”

In the regard of the controversy, a five-member Apex Council comprising the elected office bearers including President, Vice President, Secretary, Joint Secretary and Treasurer has been formed to conduct the inquiry.

Following the outrage on different social media sites, Pandya had issued an apology on Twitter. However, KL Rahul is yet to come up with his reaction.

pic.twitter.com/O0UlpFm43o

— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) January 9, 2019

Earlier on Friday, Indian skipper Virat Kohli has distanced his team from the remark made by Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul on the show.

“We as the Indian cricket team and responsible cricketers do not support such views,” Virat Kohli said during the pre-match press conference in Sydney. “The two players concerned have realised what has gone wrong and they have understood the magnitude of what has happened.”