Cricket is not Anushka Sharma for us to not comment on, Kohli

Is Kohli setting a dangerous precedent with his comments?

“And someone who hasn't played for the country has no right to comment on an international cricketer anyway. I don't think that has any kind of logic.” – Virat Kohli, India’s Test captain.

By this logic, all that the Gandhis have to do on December 19 to get off scot-free in the National Herald case is to appear before court and ask the Judge whether he is a Gandhi. Because unless you are a Gandhi, you aren’t qualified to comment on a Gandhi, right?

Poor Subramaniam Swamy.

What’s worse is, imagine if the politicians pass a bill that says you have to be a politcian to question a politician. As if what we are put through day in, day out isn’t enough already. And what do the courts and police stations, in general, do, interfering in businesses of other people? Shut them all down.

Setting dangerous precedents here, aren’t we?

From Doctoring pitches to trying to doctor fans

Maybe in just one home series, Kohli has got so used to doctoring things that he wants doctored fans as well. Not surprising when you look at the results.

This is a country that has had people who didn’t mind booing Sachin Tendulkar in his home ground, so Kohli would be better off throwing all the fans out and just have recorded clips of “cheers”, “applause”, chants of “Kohli the great”, etc. He can play it using loudspeakers as and when he wants to.

That’s basically what he is expecting from fans, anyway. This app can be of help.

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*Knock Knock*

*Who is it?*

*This is BCCI*

*What do you want?*

*Ticket prices*

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Your money, your game

Ticket prices! Money! There comes the issue. Let’s deal with the ‘how sensible is it for a few to be critical of a team that has just halted a 9-year long unbeaten streak’ part a bit later.

Firstly, irrespective of what you say and how ridiculous it is, as long as it doesn’t become personal and is limited to the game, you have all the rights in the world to voice your opinion.

It’s your money that runs the game. You pay for it. You spend your time watching it. It might be argued that you wasting time on anything doesn’t give you the license to say whatever you want, but unless you do so seeing a match that runs for like five days, the game would have been dead long back.

Star Sports would be able to tell you what happens to games when they don’t garner TRPs. Even highlights can replace them, or the same live telecast of the game that sells in four different channels.

In such a case, the least that you can be allowed is to have an opinion of it. Kohli’s reaction to it seems like we are asking for a share of his match fee.

Bharat Army out, Kohli’s puppets in

Kohli would do well to remember that this is the same set of fans who turned Times Now’s attempt to trend #ShamedinSydney – after the World Cup 2015 semi-final loss - to #ShameonTimesNow. And this is all he has to offer in return?

I have often noticed Kohli asking for fans to raise their voice in stadiums. So, we are the ones who come to his mind first for that purpose. What does he think we are? Noise-producing puppets that function as per his whims and fancies?

There is this wonderful group called Bharat Army that travels around to support Indian team when it plays away from home. Kohli can perhaps chuck the concept and have a set of his fanboys handpicked by him to do the needful?

How different is it from what the BCCI expects from its commentators – don’t be critical of what we do; either back our stance or be silent. But let's not forget that in this case it's the BCCI that pays the commentators, and not the other way around. Kohli wants to give away both our money and our voice.

Doctored home wins are perfectly fine, but not enough to sing praises

I don’t quite understand why Kohli has been going on and on about defeating the Proteas. Winning an overseas side on wickets like these is a basic requirement of any subcontinental side.

I understand that this is not just another touring team, but the mighty South Africa who entered into the series undefeated away from home for a span of 9 years.

Now, to counter it I am not even trying to stretch the issue by bringing in the difference in personnel point of view: Jacques Kallis, who was one of the main reasons behind South Africa’s supremacy in Test cricket, is retired; Dale Steyn didn’t play three of the four Tests and Hashim Amla has been struggling for form for months now.

But leave all these, I will rest my case with one simple point: if one has to resort to such wickets to get a victory, they wouldn’t have had a streak to speak of, in the first place, even with all those players.

Amla explained it better during one of his press conferences when he said that had he faced Kumble on such wickets, he wouldn’t have bought a single run in India.

Having said that, I have no issues with any of the wickets produced in the series. Make use of the home advantage as much as you want, but don’t go around boasting non-stop that you have done something improbable: it’s the least that is expected of you.

False dawns to blame for negativity

I understand that this might sound a bit cliched, but winning overseas is the real test for any cricket team. And for India, by overseas, I mean outside subcontinent. What’s wrong in expecting an all-round team, after all?

I dread what’s on store for us if India does become a team that’s capable of doing well in all conditions. Because all that Kohli needed was one home series win to speak out the way he has.

Kohli keeps repeating that fans are concentrating on the negatives. Why don’t they sing the praises that Kohli wants them to? Because they have been through all these before.

There have been so many false dawns in the recent past: the team gets rolled over overseas, comes back home, notches up a series of impressive wins in subcontinental conditions, convinces people that it will perform better the next time it goes away, only to be beaten as badly again.

This is a team that has lost 15 of the 21 Tests it has played in Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa since 2011. It has managed to win only one. How do you expect people to be entirely convinced then?

As a captain, it’s Kohli’s job to reverse this trend if he wants people to only wax lyricals about his team. Once you do that, tell us what you have been through to achieve it, what hurt you in the process, where do you want fans to improve on their behaviour. We will hear. I am not saying all of them will change. Some will.

Crying over critics

And then he also has issues with experts and commentators recording their observations.

"But some people like to focus on the negatives. It feels bad as an Indian cricketer. Growing up, you have looked up to these people, and when you hear such comments from them you lose a bit of respect for them. It would be more respectful of them to come up and speak to a player individually if they feel there is some flaw that needs to be corrected.”

Isn’t that what they are paid to do? Imagine Sunil Gavaskar being asked what he thinks is the reason behind Rohit’s Sharma’s mediocre performances in Test cricket and him saying, “uhm... no.. I can’t tell you that. I will convey that straight to the player.”

At least he might be able to do that. Kohli would expect me to first confirm with him if I have enough “talent” to even discuss Rohit.

This logic of the Indian captain might be convenient, though, for a few who would like to discuss how sweet or milky Delhi Chai is in the middle of a Test match (yes, it happened).

Couple of days back, Ian Chappell, while on air, blasted the West Indies cricket board and players for dragging their internal issues to the extent they have, terming it as “rubbish”.

If Kohli’s advice is to be taken, he should have instead phoned West Indies players one by one to say, ”Mate, you are rubbish. I just wanted to personally tell you this. I hope me doing it this way hurts you less. Good luck!”.

Sounds perfectly alright to me.

South Africa’s surrender has a role to play

The fourth innings of the final Test match – Applying yourself is fine, but at some stage you will have to convert it. No game has ever been won scoring 143 in 143 overs.

Sure, they were only one session away from drawing the match. It might sound better in comparison to how they struggled to take the game to even the 4th day in the previous Tests. But will repeating this approach help them in any game? 10 off 100 is fine, but it has to become 100 off 300 for your team to be benefited, not end as 30 off 300. Did they even attempt doing it, to see how it could have helped them when they play on such wickets next time?

At least had the series been at stake, the ‘dig-in’ tactic would have been defendable. In this case, there was nothing. As a team lagging behind, they should have taken efforts to move the game forward. They didn’t.

There was a lot said about it. Like how South Africa, at least for once, showed why they are such a force in world cricket, how they will benefit out of the time spent on the crease, and how they will return a more confident team.

But I will tell you what it actually did: it let Kohli and Co. know who the boss is. The pitch wasn’t as difficult. It wasn’t about the 22 yards anymore; it was just a complete surrender and admission of the fact that they were no match to the Indian spinners.

They went back an even more defeated team, having fallen way short of the target again. That almost every Indian cricketer who spoke after the match expressed surprise at the way South Africa played, and walked away proud of what they have done, said at all.

As it always is with pride, sometimes it gets to the head. Maybe, it got to Kohli for him to speak the way he has done.

Cricket is not Anuskha Sharma, Kohli

Make no mistake, I don’t intend to convey that nothing good has happened after Kohli has taken over. I like how flexible he has been, how open he is to experiment, how supportive of pacers who Dhoni publicly said “India should reconsider playing”, and how quick he is to admit the fact that he has got it wrong (if he has).

There are definite positives and I wouldn’t be surprised if India becomes a better travelling team under his watch.

But even if India truly becomes a world-class outfit, it doesn’t give anyone the right to say fans can’t comment on international players. Cricket is not Anushka Sharma for Kohli to ask us not to intervene between them.

The game belongs as much to us as it is to you. So deal with it, captain.