Perth: Journalists may soon have to wear their names on shirts like cricketers so that they do not get mistakenly abused by a player.
India’s star batsman Virat Kohli verbally abused an Indian journalist at the Murdoch Oval ground on Tuesday after assuming he was the reporter who had written about him and his girlfriend, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, in a national daily. Last month, Pakistan opener Ahmad Shehzad, too, had a spat with a journalist during World Cup after mistaking him as the one tweeting against him.
It’s no wonder then that many reporters are of the opinion that a sponsored T-shirt with their names affixed should be worn to avoid attacks. Kohli’s temper is now the butt of jokes among journalists. The journalist whom Kohli actually wanted to target was as bald as the journalist who was targeted: so the joke around is that it happened because Kohli, being a top order batsman, is used to hitting everything that shines like a new ball.
It all began when the journalist did not get a seat on the taxi shared by other reporters returning to the city. Since the Murdoch Oval is about 20 kilometres away from city, journalists opt to car pool to save the high costs.
The BCCI on Tuesday put out a release stating: “There was a misunderstanding and no abusive language was used. Virat [Kohli] has spoken to the concerned gentlemen immediately and the matter ends.”
Since Indian journalists are being treated with contempt by Team India, whose members ignore their pleas for interviews, make them wait for post-match press conferences, and now shower them with abuse, many feel that all that is left now is a slap from one of the players.
Lack of exclusive information
So deprived of stories are these journalists that one photographer was seen trying to take photos of tattoos on the players for a story.
Almost all Indian players have tattoos, and some like to show it off. Kohli came for a press conference in Melbourne wearing a sleeveless T-shirt exhibiting the scorpion inked on his upper right arm. Suresh Raina’s tattoo on his right biceps saying ‘Believe’ is also very prominent.
An intrepid journalist approached the West Indies team media manager Phillip Spooner for a player to be interviewed. He permitted Darren Sammy to speak, but journalists also wanted to talk to Curtly Ambrose, their bowling coach here, only to be told that he would not speak but they were welcome to read his autobiography, which is slated to be published next month.
Most spectators carry smartphones into the ground and take pictures or videos of any action on the field and all these are immediately posted on Facebook. Players, too, now have to be careful with their gestures on the field since videos such as Australia’s Glenn Maxwell’s choking gesture to the New Zealand crowd when the Kiwis batting collapsed often go viral. New Zealand fan Sam Holt’s clip of the event has attracted 173,000 views and was liked by 65,000 and shared 3,000 times.
According to a study, Facebook has benefited tremendously during the World cup with 36 million people having generated 341 million interactions between January 1 and February 28 about cricket.
