Ind vs Aus 3rd Test – Is Australia media playing mind games? The Australian cricket team failed to put any kind of pressure on the Ajinkya Rahane led Indian team in the Boxing Day Test. It seems, now the Australian media has taken the task in their own hands. In the last 48 hours – Australian media is continuously targeting Indian team with some baseless allegations. Even Cricket Australia has kept mum as the Australian media is hurling bouncer after bouncer against the Indian team.
Just sample this –
Allegation 1 Saturday – Rohit Sharma and 4 other Indian cricketers breached Bio-Bubble protocols.
Allegation 2 Sunday – Indian team does not want to go to Brisbane and don’t want to follow Covid-19 protocols in the state
Allegation 3 Sunday – Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya also break Covid-19 protocols
Allegation 4 Sunday – In Adelaide, group of players dined outdoors at Waffle and Coffee and but two of them went inside to order without wearing a mask.
All these allegations are made by different sections of the Australian media. One of the BCCI official told InsideSport, ‘Media is cooking up stories, probably to distract the Indian team. Their is no Bio-bubble breach by any of the Indian player. It’s all cooked up’
Ind vs Aus 3rd Test: Check what exactly happened ? How media is ‘cooking up stories’
On Sunday, the Australian news channels claimed that the fourth Test in Brisbane has been jeopardised as the tourists are reluctant to travel there in view of stricter quarantine rules. The development came after five Indian players including Rohit Sharma had allegedly breached the bio-security by eating in an indoor restaurant. While Cricket Australia (CA) and the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) are investigating on the matter, the Australian media are trying to put the Indian team and its player in a bad light.
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A report by Fox Sports and Sydney Morning Herald said that this was not the first time Indian players have breached COVID-19 protocols. The first of the new incidents occurred in early December, when Kohli shopped at a Sydney baby store alongside teammate Hardik Pandya.
The Indian skipper who has since returned to India for the birth of his first child — purchased a few items before the duo posed for pictures alongside staff. According to report quoting a CA officials they have breached biosecurity rules by not wearing masks inside the store. Another incident by the two Australian media houses is when the Indian team were in Adelaide. A group of players dined outdoors at Waffle and Coffee and according to the Herald, two them went inside to order without wearing a mask.
The two incidents mentioned are weeks ago and has no relevance to the matter. Also, if these are potential breaches of protocols, Why did the Australian media not report it back then. Furthermore, post the events, the two teams have played two Tests — Adelaide and Melbourne — then why did not Cricket Australia take any action before it?
Interestingly, this is not the first time the Australian media has played the role of a 12th man. It played a very huge role during the in-famous monkey gate scandal too in 2008. The situation unfolded when veteran India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was charged for racially abusing Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds in the second Border-Gavaskar Test at Sydney.
The Australian media tried influencing the decision by making up reports based on assumptions. Bhajji claimed that the Australian media harassed him and it was a tough phase for him. “Why always me, why I always get into trouble. I don’t want the attention and the camera always follow me. Australian media made me Michael Jackson. I was constantly being chased by the cameras,” the 39-year-old said.
Just like back then, the Australia media is trying to put a blame on the Indian team if the Gabba Test gets cancelled or shifts out of Brisbane.
How Indian team is reacting to this onslaught by the Australian media? As far as Indian camp is concerned, they according to the sources are keeping calm in midst of this onslaught by the Australian media.
“The boys have shut the outside world and they are not even looking at who is saying what. We are backing our belief that no protocol was broken and that is that. We are now looking at the third Test and the focus is on the next game at the SCG. We want to make it 2-1 by the time we leave the SCG at the end of the Test match,” the source said.
Asked if there could be a case of the five players being stopped from playing the Pink Test, the source said: “We don’t wish to get into if the matter was blown out of proportion or not. We only know that we want the five boys to be available for selection for the Sydney game and that is our only focus here.”
Ind vs Aus 4th Test: Brisbane’s Gabba Test still on for now
According to a report by PTI, it is learnt that the fourth Test, starting at the Gabba from January 15, is on as of now. The border restrictions between New South Wales (venue of the third Test in Sydney) and Queensland state government is a problem. Queensland has closed its borders for people travelling from New South Wales due to the rising cases of COVD-19 in Sydney and surrounding areas.
However there will be an exception made for the Test match and players will be in a stricter bio-bubble, similar to the one in the IPL. It could well happen that in order to play the Test match in Brisbane, the Indian team would have to be in a stricter bio-bubble from Sydney itself which would make for a hard quarantine (hotel-stadium-hotel) of around 15 days.
However, as of now BCCI has not taken any call on asking CA to shift the Test match from Brisbane to Sydney.
“It’s a fluid situation. Let’s wait for a few more days,” a BCCI official said.