Perth: With the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) reprimanding Virat Kohli for his spat with a journalist, the Indian media here feel vindicated. However, people here still believe it is high time that someone gifted him a bunch of Dale Carnegie books just so that he does not repeat such acts.
Since he is the Indian team’s Test captain and also likely to take over in all formats of the game after Mahendra Singh Dhoni retires, Carnegie’s books like ‘Public Speaking,’ ‘The leader in you’ and ‘How to win friends and influence people’ could be useful.
While Kohli’s aggressiveness may be appreciated by many, his arrogance is now the topic of debate. Many fear that after the snub from BCCI, his future relationship with the media will be bumpy. It would be ideal if Kohli took a few lessons from his colleague Ravichandran Ashwin, who tackled questions on their relationship with the media and even a controversial question on Ravi Shastri’s remark that the tri-series before the World Cup was a waste of time, with tact.
Ashwin expressed his personal opinion very articulately: “It’s very hard to take up on opinions because he (Shastri) said it’s a waste of time. And if I say it’s not a waste of time, that’s going to be a contradiction. We play cricket all 12 months a year, and there are times you feel really low, so it’s hard to pick yourself up, and that was one of those times, and he was very clear in expressing that, I thought.”
After the pre-match comments from Ashwin, many journalists were heard discussing how important it is for India to have a captain who knows how to deal with the media and who thinks before he speaks. The BCCI snub for Kohli is jokingly mentioned in cricketing terms as ‘a wrong one’ to the batsman.
During India’s matches, the International Cricket Council (ICC) serves Indian food to all: where the big attraction is yoghurt. Most journalists consume so much of it to cool down from the heat here at Perth and also to cool down their tempers after the controversy that waiters had to repeatedly refill the yoghurt serving container! With many of the Indian scribes being vegetarians, they have been serving dishes like Channa Masala, Palak Paneer and sometimes even Sambhar. And for those who enjoy their meat, they had to very often make do with only one chicken dish.
When everyone was lining up to take a picture with Chris Gayle or his autograph while at the nets, Gayle surprised everyone by taking an autograph on a bat from Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Like any cricket fan, Gayle was heard asking Dhoni, “Can I get an autograph captain? ” Dhoni was surprised to see the request coming from a smiling Gayle. Dhoni signed it with a smile and had a quick, friendly chat with him. Gayle also got AB De Villiers’ autograph on a bat for him.
When UAE’s Shaiman Anwar topped the rungetters’ list in the World Cup above Kumar Sangakkara and Chris Gayle, some Australian newspapers and web sites gave the headline ‘Sir Viv leads the world for the UAE’ referring to Anwar’s nick name after the West Indies legend Viv Richards.
