New Delhi: As the highly anticipated Boxing Day Test between the Indian team, led by Rohit Sharma, and Australia, captained by Pat Cummins, approaches at Melbourne for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a controversy surrounding Ravindra Jadeja’s press conference reportedly led to the cancellation of a scheduled T20 match between the media teams of the two nations.
As per a report from The Age, during the press conference ahead of the 4th Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, India’s all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was interacting with the media. It is claimed that he declined to respond to questions in English and reportedly left the session before Australian reporters had the chance to ask their questions.
In contrast, the Indian media group and the team’s media manager have refuted the claims. After the alleged incident on Saturday, the scheduled T20 match between the media representatives of both nations was cancelled and ultimately scrapped. Cricket Australia had organized the event.
Other allegations:
The Age also mentioned that India’s support staff, along with the traveling media, chose to boycott the T20 match planned for Sunday afternoon at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. The match was eventually cancelled.
It is claimed that Team India’s media manager withdrew from the event, leading several other members to follow suit. As a result, there were not enough participants left to proceed with the match.
What Indian journalists say?
However, some Indian reporters claimed that the media event was called only for travelling journalists.
Regarding the Ravindra Jadeja press conference issue, Indian journalists stated that the questions were posed to him in Hindi, which he responded to accordingly. They further clarified that Jadeja did not decline to speak in English, contrary to claims made by Australian media.
The fourth Test between India and Australia is set to begin at the MCG on December 26, starting at 5 am IST.
