In the last one week, some very interesting developments have emerged from the world of Indian cricket
1) A much awaited interview of Virat Kohli by Nagraj Gollapudi is on the June cover of The Cricket Monthly. This interview peels the mask of India’s test captain who explains his philosophy, views on Indian cricket and does not shy away from answering questions about his private life.
Watching you and reading about you, it seemed like you went into that Australia series like you were building up to a boxing match: the shop talk started from the weigh-in and carried on till the end of the series. Why was this necessary?
I knew it was going to be difficult. I knew there would be a lot of mental games fought, a lot of words, a lot of talk. As a subcontinent player, as an Indian player, the general feeling has been that we are not supposed to talk like this. I do not connect to that, because if an opposition is doing it and they are still performing, there has to be a disconnect between talking and doing. It is not as if I have said something in a press conference and then I will go out to bat thinking, “Oh, I have said something, now what if I don’t do well?” Eventually I have a bat in hand and the guy is running in with a ball in hand. He is not running in to smash that statement in my face. So if a team is willing to play the mental battle, you should be good enough to tackle that. And eventually it is a battle of skills when you go in the field. I don’t mix the two. Off the field I am countering what is being said. Why should we succumb to the mental pressure or mental games the opposition plays with us?
Right from his U19 days, he’s not shied away from verbal duels and it is something that we’ve made fun of on this blog before. We hope he does well for Indian cricket but the more we see him, the more he reminds us of Ponting. He surely won’t have the bowlers that Ponting had and this will have an impact on the results he seeks. But one thing is sure- one failure and everyone is going to take his case due to the body language and attitude he’s adopted.
2) BCCI has appointed Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman in an advisory committee and Rahul Dravid as the coach of the India A and U-19 teams. Given the fond memories that they’ve given Indian fans over the last 25 years, we’re quite excited about the trajectory that they will chart for the Indian teams of the future.
3) Indian umpire S Ravi makes it to the ICC Elite Panel of umpires. He’s attributed his ascension to the IPL and we hope that more Indian umpires make it to the Elite panel and it also reflects on the general standard of umpiring in the Indian cricketing tournaments.
4) The vultures are circling around N Srinivasan with two of his loyalists being removed from the Indian support staff team. Given the feathers he’s ruffled, it was only a matter of time when the shoe was on the other foot.
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