***Official*** India in South Africa 2017/18

[harsh.ag]

Kohli and Shastri really shouldn't do pressers tbh. Hire Tharoor imo.

 

[cnerd123]

Journalist's point was the pitch for 2nd test was subcontinent-like (to which Kohli agreed), and the journalist wanted to know why India didn't field the best playing XI for such conditions - which they do at home.
Kohli somehow got infuriated by the question and said something like: What is the best XI? Tell me what is the best XI and we'll play that XI in the next match!

I normally ignore well done's posts but this deserves a response.

What kind of ****ing questions is "Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?"

Do you genuinely think Virat and Shastri sincerely sat down and went "You know what yaar, lets make it a challenge. Lets pick a weakened XI for this game. See if we can beat SA anyways. Maaza ayega"

What dumb bullshit is that. Obviously they both picked the XI that they both genuinely, sincerely, felt was the strongest one they could pick. Whether or not any of us agree with it is besides the point. The point is they picked the team they felt had the best chance of winning the game.

"Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?" is just a snarky, passive aggressive, bullshit way for the journalist to say to Kohli "I think the XI you picked wasn't the strongest one possible". Except this hack of a journalist doesn't have the balls to say that upright, so he has to wrap it up in some condescending nonsense question.

He absolutely deserved to have his head ripped off for that question. No way did he deserve any respect for it. You want to question the selections, just straight up ask "Why wasn't Bhuvi selected?" or "Why is Rohit selected over Rahane?". But you can't ask those questions, because those questions have already been asked, and you already have an answer for it. So what does this sad excuse of a journalist ask instead? Some petty snarky nonsense question that accomplishes nothing and just pisses off Kohli, so he can get a tasty soundbite to put as the headline of his dumb article

Plz never become a cricket journalist well done.

 

[weldone]

I normally ignore well done's posts but this deserves a response.

What kind of ****ing questions is "Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?"

Do you genuinely think Virat and Shastri sincerely sat down and went "You know what yaar, lets make it a challenge. Lets pick a weakened XI for this game. See if we can beat SA anyways. Maaza ayega"

What dumb bullshit is that. Obviously they both picked the XI that they both genuinely, sincerely, felt was the strongest one they could pick. Whether or not any of us agree with it is besides the point. The point is they picked the team they felt had the best chance of winning the game.

"Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?" is just a snarky, passive aggressive, bullshit way for the journalist to say to Kohli "I think the XI you picked wasn't the strongest one possible". Except this hack of a journalist doesn't have the balls to say that upright, so he has to wrap it up in some condescending nonsense question.

He absolutely deserved to have his head ripped off for that question. No way did he deserve any respect for it. You want to question the selections, just straight up ask "Why wasn't Bhuvi selected?" or "Why is Rohit selected over Rahane?". But you can't ask those questions, because those questions have already been asked, and you already have an answer for it. So what does this sad excuse of a journalist ask instead? Some petty snarky nonsense question that accomplishes nothing and just pisses off Kohli, so he can get a tasty soundbite to put as the headline of his dumb article

Plz never become a cricket journalist well done.

tl;dr

 

[weldone]

I normally ignore well done's posts

WTF *****! Half of the 1000 odd likes I've got have come from you. Who did you hire to randomly press the like button for you - Shastri? [I'm sure he can do that job - of randomly expressing himself by pressing the 'like' button with a lot of intent]

 

[Burgey]

I normally ignore well done's posts but this deserves a response.

What kind of ****ing questions is "Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?"

Do you genuinely think Virat and Shastri sincerely sat down and went "You know what yaar, lets make it a challenge. Lets pick a weakened XI for this game. See if we can beat SA anyways. Maaza ayega"

What dumb bullshit is that. Obviously they both picked the XI that they both genuinely, sincerely, felt was the strongest one they could pick. Whether or not any of us agree with it is besides the point. The point is they picked the team they felt had the best chance of winning the game.

"Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?" is just a snarky, passive aggressive, bullshit way for the journalist to say to Kohli "I think the XI you picked wasn't the strongest one possible". Except this hack of a journalist doesn't have the balls to say that upright, so he has to wrap it up in some condescending nonsense question.

He absolutely deserved to have his head ripped off for that question. No way did he deserve any respect for it. You want to question the selections, just straight up ask "Why wasn't Bhuvi selected?" or "Why is Rohit selected over Rahane?". But you can't ask those questions, because those questions have already been asked, and you already have an answer for it. So what does this sad excuse of a journalist ask instead? Some petty snarky nonsense question that accomplishes nothing and just pisses off Kohli, so he can get a tasty soundbite to put as the headline of his dumb article

Plz never become a cricket journalist well done.

Ok

 

[cnerd123]

It was not snarky, it was petulant... he came across as a little boy who has not had things go his way and is now whining, stamping his foot... he is not taking any responsibility, or being honest in what India need to do to improve.

You don't know what goes on in the dressing room.

Do you really expect a leader to get up in front of a public audience of millions of people and straight up say "Yea Che's being a dumb **** so far, isn't he? He better get his head on straight or he'll be dropped for Rahane. And as for Pathiv? Pfft, I didn't understand why he was selected in the first place, the guy barely catches anything in the nets too. But hey, the rest of us can't 'keep*, so he gets the gig"

I genuinely don't know what you expect him to say in these conferences and to these questions. Of course he's going to back his team and say they've been competitive. Of course he's going to focus on the positives. Of course he's going to foster a 'we're gonna silence all the haters' kind of mindset. That's his ****ing job.

For all we know him and Shastri may genuinely take no accountability for the losses and may actually be delusional of where the players' skills are at, but you are never going to hear anything different in public. They're going to be confident and bullish to a fault in public, because they have to.


* yes Shri I know Lokesh can keep too, plz stop harping on about it

 

[cnerd123]

WTF *****! Half of the 1000 odd likes I've got have come from you. Who did you hire to randomly press the like button for you - Shastri?

pretty sure those are either accidental or from back before i realised that you're not a very good poster

 

[GotSpin]

Shastri really is a **** of the highest order isn't he

 

[Himannv]

I normally ignore well done's posts but this deserves a response.

What kind of ****ing questions is "Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?"

Do you genuinely think Virat and Shastri sincerely sat down and went "You know what yaar, lets make it a challenge. Lets pick a weakened XI for this game. See if we can beat SA anyways. Maaza ayega"

What dumb bullshit is that. Obviously they both picked the XI that they both genuinely, sincerely, felt was the strongest one they could pick. Whether or not any of us agree with it is besides the point. The point is they picked the team they felt had the best chance of winning the game.

"Why didn't you field the best possible XI for this match?" is just a snarky, passive aggressive, bullshit way for the journalist to say to Kohli "I think the XI you picked wasn't the strongest one possible". Except this hack of a journalist doesn't have the balls to say that upright, so he has to wrap it up in some condescending nonsense question.

He absolutely deserved to have his head ripped off for that question. No way did he deserve any respect for it. You want to question the selections, just straight up ask "Why wasn't Bhuvi selected?" or "Why is Rohit selected over Rahane?". But you can't ask those questions, because those questions have already been asked, and you already have an answer for it. So what does this sad excuse of a journalist ask instead? Some petty snarky nonsense question that accomplishes nothing and just pisses off Kohli, so he can get a tasty soundbite to put as the headline of his dumb article

Plz never become a cricket journalist well done.

I think you're making assumptions on what the journalist was asking though. I read that as "Why didn't you pick a team suited to sub-continent conditions?". If this game was played in India, would he really have gone into it with 4 seamers and a spinner?

 

[weldone]

Kohli and Shastri really shouldn't do pressers tbh. Hire Tharoor imo.

There's no need for Tharoor. A good human being will do - someone who, at every possible opportunity, doesn't remind journalists that they don't earn as much money as he does. Someone who can respect a journalist's job.

We've had such coaches and captains throughout our cricketing history (there have been some exceptions like Greg Chappell).

 

[Himannv]

A good human being will do - someone who, at every possible opportunity, doesn't remind journalists that they don't earn as much money as he does.

Haha did he actually do that?

 

[harsh.ag]

There's no need for Tharoor. A good human being will do - someone who, at every possible opportunity, doesn't remind journalists that they don't earn as much money as he does. Someone who can respect a journalist's job.

Tbh in today's world, this applies to journalists more than the people being interviewed in general.

 

[Victor Ian]

WTF *****! Half of the 1000 odd likes I've got have come from you. ....]

That is too funny. Excellent response.

 

[weldone]

Haha did he actually do that?

Shastri said "It takes a lot of skill. That's why I am here and you are there."

 

[StephenZA]

Do you really expect a leader to get up in front of a public audience of millions of people and straight up say "Yea Che's being a dumb **** so far, isn't he? He better get his head on straight or he'll be dropped for Rahane. And as for Pathiv? Pfft, I didn't understand why he was selected in the first place, the guy barely catches anything in the nets too. But hey, the rest of us can't 'keep*, so he gets the gig"

Support is all good but also answering questions showing awareness...

Sincie I know SA I will use those examples; the number of times that SA/Faf/coach have outright stated that our slip catching was not good enough and they needed to work on it. Comments about Amla`s running and calling, even in a jokey way but clearly showing that it was not good enough. The recent statement Faf made about Philander needing to improve his fitness because it was not good enough. So on and so forth. You don't have to be an asehole and scream at you team members or take them to task on the field or embarrass them in public but you can still be honest. We all know that Philander has fitness/weight issues for a professional sportsman, when asked he answered honestly without being horrible to Philander or throwing his toys out of the cot. But you note each time Faf acknowledges the problem and sometimes gives an indication they are trying to fix the issue.

Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, Faf handling of the ball tampering in Aus was not great...

This whole question comes from the journalist asking a poorly worded question regarding the makeup of the team. A simple answer of "Yes, maybe India should have considered the pitch conditions more than relying on what was expected in SA and Jadeja would have been a consideration. However, I believe the team picked was good enough to win and we do not take our opportunities as well as SA."

What he did was go on in a petulant manner that he was being questioned at all....

 

[Heboric]

Support is all good but also answering questions showing awareness...

Sincie I know SA I will use those examples; the number of times that SA/Faf/coach have outright stated that our slip catching was not good enough and they needed to work on it. Comments about Amla`s running and calling, even in a jokey way but clearly showing that it was not good enough. The recent statement Faf made about Philander needing to improve his fitness because it was not good enough. So on and so forth. You don't have to be an asehole and scream at you team members or take them to task on the field or embarrass them in public but you can still be honest. We all know that Philander has fitness/weight issues for a professional sportsman, when asked he answered honestly without being horrible to Philander or throwing his toys out of the cot. But you note each time Faf acknowledges the problem and sometimes gives an indication they are trying to fix the issue.

Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, Faf handling of the ball tampering in Aus was not great...

This whole question comes from the journalist asking a poorly worded question regarding the makeup of the team. A simple answer of "Yes, maybe India should have considered the pitch conditions more than relying on what was expected in SA and Jadeja would have been a consideration. However, I believe the team picked was good enough to win and we do not take our opportunities as well as SA."

What he did was go on in a petulant manner that he was being questioned at all....

Thing is us South Africans dont like our captain / player or coach talking up their own team - period.

 

[OverratedSanity]

We should send Ashwin to do the pressers again.

 

[cnerd123]

I mean Kohli is a cricketer not a diplomat

It would be wonderful if he could be patient and give professional responses to dumb questions, but I dont expect that of him. Or of any sportsman tbh. Not even from the coaches or support staff. And I definitely feel the responsibility is on the journalists to not ask dumb questions, and not on the cricketer/coach to entertain them.

 

[Himannv]

This whole question comes from the journalist asking a poorly worded question regarding the makeup of the team. A simple answer of "Yes, maybe India should have considered the pitch conditions more than relying on what was expected in SA and Jadeja would have been a consideration. However, I believe the team picked was good enough to win and we do not take our opportunities as well as SA."

That's such a terribly generic and boring answer though. I actually prefer, "What's the best XI?".. glare.. "What's the best XI dammit!".. glare.. "You tell me the best XI if you dare and we'll play it tomorrow!".. glare.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I mean Kohli is a cricketer not a diplomat

It would be wonderful if he could be patient and give professional responses to dumb questions, but I dont expect that of him. Or of any sportsman tbh. Not even from the coaches or support staff. And I definitely feel the responsibility is on the journalists to not ask dumb questions, and not on the cricketer/coach to entertain them.

Yeah no. Handling dumb journo questions is part of Kohli's job.