Is much ado in Australian media over Jadeja, Kohli a ploy to rattle India?

There seems to be a method to the madness on the part of a certain section of the Australian media, seemingly to ensure things get a bit hot under the collar for the Indian team ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

The series being locked at 1-1, both Australia and India have everything to play for in the remaining two Tests — and the intensity is also spilling over to the fans.

The latest trigger was Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s press conference in Hindi at the MCG on Saturday, 21 December, where the Australian media looked visibly miffed that they did not get a chance to ask questions in English. While reporting the incident, Channel 7 alleged that Jadeja ‘refused’ to respond to questions from Australian media in English and one of the reporters was even heard labelling the presser “disorganised and hopeless”.

It is learnt that it was not one of the scheduled official press conferences, but one arranged by media manager Moulin Parekh at the request of the travelling Indian media contingent in particular — an accepted practice to deliver some content in the gap days before matches. Parekh’s argument for drawing Jadeja away before he could respond to all the assembled that day was that they were running out of time — the team bus was leaving; but the Australian media felt they were deprived of the opportunity of an interaction.

While it’s debatable whether the media manager could have made time for a few more questions, there was simply much ado over Jadeja replying in Hindi and not English.

It only underlines the fact that much as India may have become a cricketing powerhouse, the fabric of the sport as a colonial legacy and one still dominated by the Commonwealth nations is yet to undergo significant decolonisation.

A visit to media conferences for football across the globe — be it with the late Diego Maradona, with Leo Messi or with Neymar — would show that sportspersons, no matter what their stature, answering in their language of comfort is only the norm. The way such language barriers are addressed, with interviews and pressers being conducted with the help of interpreters, could offer some cues for best practice for cricket's organisers.

The Jadeja palaver also comes in the wake of batting icon Virat Kohli being left upset after Channel 7 tried to record footage of him with his two children at the Melbourne airport earlier this week.  Kohli, known to be fiercely protective of his family, was seen arguing with a female reporter of the channel that they should have taken his permission before snapping photos of his children.

Some may debate his logic, since the cricketer and his family were very much in the public space — which seemed to be the contention of the reporter concerned. Regardless, there was severe backlash in the Australian media, with some calling Kohli a 'bully' while many wondering whether Kohli reserves these privileges for his own social media handles where such ‘exclusive’ photos turn up.

What is, however, interesting is the over-the-top coverage that both incidents received in the Australian media — with the onus being placed on the seasoned Indian cricketers to put it past them when they step out before a sellout crowd of 90,000 on the first day at the MCG.

The travelling media group from India, meanwhile, have betrayed a certain amount of jingoism by refusing to play the customary friendly match with their Australian counterparts in ‘protest’ against the Jadeja incident.  

Unsavoury is the expectation

It all began last month when India landed in Perth, with the Australian media taking a dig at the Indian team over their private training sessions at the WACA.

With the Border–Gavaskar Trophy acquiring the status of arguably the most acrimonious battle in the game in the new millennium, India’s visits to Australia have never really been free of controversy recently, though.

Fortunately, none of the above incidents have acquired the dimension of a Monkeygate in 2008, nor the proportions of the Sydney incident of 2021, when Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were targeted with racial abuses.