Katich dismisses Kohli and Jadeja media controversies as ‘mind games’, accuses Indian reporter of misquoting question

There was a media uproar surrounding Ravindra Jadeja, who sparked frustration among Australian journalists in Melbourne when he exclusively responded to questions in Hindi during a press interaction. Despite the fact that the questions were posed in Hindi by Indian journalists present, Jadeja only acknowledged their queries and exited the scene. When Australian reporters raised the issue with a BCCI official, they were informed that Jadeja had to depart for the team bus, which was running behind schedule.

Channel 7 reported that the team media manager offered Akash Deep for a media interaction, but the pacer only knew Hindi and was unable to answer in English. The channel also reported that their reporter took the help of an Indian journalist to ask about ‘tensions’ in the India camp, which was misquoted as who had the ‘upper hand’ in the series.

Speaking to Channel 7, for whom he also works as a commentator, Australian coach and former cricketer Simon Katich labelled it as ‘mind games’ from the Indian camp. “Obviously, there’s been a few things unfolding in the last week or so, that haven’t gone down well at that camp. It’s probably just the mind games being played, given the enormity of this series,” he said.

“The media are here to promote the game and I don’t know what the Indians are thinking at the moment. That’s their problem,” he added.

Gautam Gambhir and his support staff will be hoping that the recent incidents don’t serve as a distraction for the Indian team, who are set to face Australia in the fourth Test in Melbourne, on December 26. The series is currently level at 1-1, with the Brisbane Test ending as a draw.