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

[cnerd123]

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

Nah agree to disagree. His job to is to captain the team. He has a responsibility to be a good role model and to be professional with his conduct, but I don't believe he has a responsibility to tolerate ****wits.

Atleast not journalists. Wouldn't be professional of him to punch a drunk man ala Ben Stokes no matter how many dumb questions he gets asked

 

[OverratedSanity]

Nonsense.

Part of the reason he's paid as much as he is, is because he's a public figure expected to handle press conferences properly.

 

[Burgey]

It’s an international team, not a pub side of a Saturday arvo where the biggest issue is who brings the carton of piss after the game. It goes with he job.

 

[Spark]

Yeah this is a super weird line of posting by *****.

 

[cnerd123]

I really don't like this line of thinking where there is no pressure put on journalists/media to not be ****wits and the responsibility falls on the athletes to be patient and tolerant instead.

Its the worst aspect of Western sports culture and I genuinely appreciate that this is not a part of Indian cricket yet. The journalists make their living off the athletes hard work - sure to some extent the sport needs the media to thrive, but ****wit journalists who make a living of asking provocative/annoying/dumb questions for clickbait headlines are a cancer in sport and should not be respected. The fact that they are all over the world and that people now expect them to be tolerated in cricket too bothers me and I won't support it.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I really don't like this line of thinking where there is no pressure put on journalists/media to not be ****wits and the responsibility falls on the athletes to be patient and tolerant instead.

It does not have to be one or the other

 

[cnerd123]

Yea fair enough. I don't see enough criticism of the journalists here though so I'm leaning a bit further towards Kohli and co as a reaction. Would be best to criticise both parties.

 

[Victor Ian]

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....

Well put. Yes, there are better ways of answering. Nevertheless, while it is technically part of the modern captain's job, I think it should not be. Listening to that journo's question was frustrating for me. It was too long an introduction rather than getting to the point. It would be infuriating for anone to have to sit there waiting for his speach to end before he delivers his simpleton question. The duties of the captain should be about leading the team on the field. That is why I think they should be able to refuse press conferences or perhaps have someone else field them. Why not? It's a bloody good reason to create another support staff role.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I do think Kohli deserves plenty of credit for never complaining about pitches. He may be douchebag about plenty of things but it'd have been a very easy thing to do to take a dump on the greentop in the first test. It's a refreshing change from the 2011-12 days when Gambhir would go on a rant that India would serve up rank turners at home as #revenge.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Note: Gambhir got his wish and India served up turners for England in 2012 at home and promptly lost the series. Was pretty funny.

 

[Heboric]

They should have named the series 'Intensity Series' instead. Too much intensity will cause a rift in the space time continuum.

 

[Himannv]

I do think Kohli deserves plenty of credit for never complaining about pitches. He may be douchebag about plenty of things but it'd have been a very easy thing to do to take a dump on the greentop in the first test. It's a refreshing change from the 2011-12 days when Gambhir would go on a rant that India would serve up rank turners in India as revenge.

I have to say that I've never really liked Kohli much, but he is a lot more fun to watch in a press conference than most other captains out there. For instance, it's not even worth mentioning that Faf also gave an interview right after Kohli. The man is an arrogant douchebag and it's refreshingly entertaining.

 

[Bahseph]

It was a dumb question for sure. I think I recognize the reporters voice from SABC commentary. I might be wrong, maybe my fellow Saffers can help me out there. I do think that a few of these journalists take out their frustrations about the BCCI on the Indian team and players. Yeah India have become number one cos they play at home or in similar conditions. But that's not up to them. They play where and who is put in front of them. He knows that. We know that. He still should have handled it better though. But I guess he won't change now.

 

[Groundking]

***** you've lost your head here mate, these are professional international sportsmen, they all receive media training on a regular basis as it's part and parcil of the job. Kohli has either received really crappy training, or more likely he's just a massive prick. Is it a stupid question? Sure, but there are far better ways to conduct yourself, especially if you're representing a nation of 1bn+ people as captain of the national team.

 

[Victor Ian]

Everyone speaks ill of cliche ridden, boring to death press conferences, yet the moment someone steps out of the fold and speaks as they feel, devoid of scripted training they all want to charge them with treason and remove them, either because they were douches, they were arseholes, or they had no intent. Fair enough..... Back to boring cliches.

 

[weldone]

What will be the team for 3rd test? Anyone's guess. Can shuffle a deck of cards to decide as well. My guess about what Kohli may go with:

Vijay
Pujara
Rahane
Kohli
Rohit
Karthik
Hardik
Jadeja
Shami
Ishant
Bumrah

 

[Spark]

I really don't like this line of thinking where there is no pressure put on journalists/media to not be ****wits and the responsibility falls on the athletes to be patient and tolerant instead.

Its the worst aspect of Western sports culture and I genuinely appreciate that this is not a part of Indian cricket yet. The journalists make their living off the athletes hard work - sure to some extent the sport needs the media to thrive, but ****wit journalists who make a living of asking provocative/annoying/dumb questions for clickbait headlines are a cancer in sport and should not be respected. The fact that they are all over the world and that people now expect them to be tolerated in cricket too bothers me and I won't support it.

And the athletes in turn make their living off the emotional, time and financial investment of the fans who deserve to hear answers to questions that they will undoubtedly share, so fair's fair imo.

 

[CricAddict]

What will be the team for 3rd test? Anyone's guess. Can shuffle a deck of cards to decide as well. My guess about what Kohli may go with:

Vijay
Pujara
Rahane
Kohli
Rohit
Karthik
Hardik
Jadeja
Shami
Ishant
Bumrah

Rahul for Pujara. Bhuvi for Bumrah. I think that will be the team Kohli will choose for third test.

 

[vcs]

They should have named the series 'Intensity Series' instead. Too much intensity will cause a rift in the space time continuum.

Moving on to more important matters, Ngidi is one handsome SOB.

 

[vcs]

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.

Mazaa aayega, not Maaza aayega