Melbourne: The scheduled press match between the Indian and Australian media was cancelled after the Indian media reportedly boycotted a pre-arranged game, following a press conference row involving allrounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The T20 game scheduled for Sunday at Junction Oval in Melbourne was cancelled after the Indian team’s media manager decided not to participate. This decision prompted several members of the travelling media contingent to withdraw as well, making it impossible to organise a formal match, a report in The Age quoted multiple sources.
This incident was followed Saturday by a press conference involving Jadeja, where the spinner answered questions in Hindi.
After a half-hour delay in the scheduled media appearance India completed a training session at the ground. Jadeja began taking questions from Indian journalists. Following nine minutes of discussion in Hindi, the presser was ended as the team bus had to depart. Hence, the player couldn’t stay any longer, according to India’s media manager.
However, some Australian media are claiming that Jadeja has refused to answer questions in English. “The Australian media were bemused and confused when the star allrounder refused to answer questions in English. It was obviously an annoying situation for the journalists who made the effort to turn up,” Channel 7 said in its report.
In reality, Jadeja never refused to answer questions in English. He responded primarily in Hindi because the Indian reporters posed their questions exclusively in that language.
Relations between the Indian team and local media took a downturn when the squad began to arrive in Melbourne Thursday. Star batter Virat Kohli was engaged in a heated exchange with a journalist, as he appeared to be upset by the presence of cameras directed at his family.
The fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series begins Thursday at the MCG, with the series levelled at 1-1.
