Australia cannot throw stones at India, says Chappell
The ongoing IndiaAustralia series has witnessed plenty of sparks fly. The controversy surrounding the DRS row involving Steve Smith and Virat Kohli in the Bangalore Test capped the hostilities between the teams.
Before that, there was Kohli’s ‘toilet humour’ aimed at opener Matt Renshaw and Ishant Sharma making monkey faces at Smith.
After the Bangalore Test, the Australian media attacked Kohli, comparing him with animals in a poll and over the preparation of the Ranchi pitch.
Former Aussie skipper Ian Chappell, writing in Wide World of Sports, has said a lot of bad blood has existed between the two countries because of the intense cricket they have played. However, he has criticised the cricket administrators for being lax while dealing with sledging.
“Administrators are foolish if they’re going to allow all this talking to continue on the field. It’s been allowed to escalate over the years, and nobody is stepping in to stop it. It’s going to cause a huge problem one day on the field,” Chappell wrote.
HOLIER THAN THOU
He said Australia are in no position to complain. “I also don’t think the Australians are in any position to start throwing stones. They’re no choirboys themselves. It’s ridiculous to allow that much chatter to occur on the field.”
The BCCI posted a video on their Twitter handle where Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin discuss how they sledged David Warner over his repeated dismissals against the off-spinner. Warner dismissed it was just banter.
Chappell said if teams wait for the ICC to step in and do something about the issue of sledging, then nothing will ever happen. “You’ve got all sorts of other people there and yet nothing is done. Administrators don’t understand the game properly and they’ve been really lax in a lot of those areas. It’s time they smartened up.”
Chappell also stated that if there is one criticism of Kohli, it is that he is a very emotional person. “I’ve always thought as a captain that it’s best if you keep your display of emotions pretty even, but Kohli doesn’t. To say he’s worse than somebody else is unfair as everyone does it, and some blokes do it differently to Kohli.