Indian team claims foul play against Australia

Indian team claims foul play against Australia

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The team India contingent have accused Australia of ‘breaking protocol’ and ‘leaking stories to the media’ through their team manager Gavin Dovey and media manager Kate Hutchinson during the second and third Tests. The BCCI is now set to take up the matter with the relevant authorities.

Even as India and Australia continue to engage in what has been a fiercely contested Test series so far, the hosts have accused their visitors of "breaking protocol," and "leaking stories in the media". The Indian camp has accused team manager Gavin Dovey and media manager Kate Hutchinson of facilitating a meeting between an Australian journalist and match referee Chris Broad, soon after Virat Kohli questioned Steve Smith’s decision to seek help from his dressing room over DRS review decision.

The BCCI is now all set to take up this matter with the relevant authorities, with a member of the Indian team telling the Times of India on Tuesday, "At the end of the Bengaluru Test, Dovey went to meet Broad and he (Broad) assured him that there would be no action taken against Steve Smith. Broad assured the Australian team manager that this entire incident would not be reported by field umpire Nigel Llong."

Llong had objected to Smith looking to his dressing room for help after his dismissal in the Bangalore Test, after which Kohli lashed out at the Australian camp for using tactics that were against the spirit of the game. "Dovey then introduced an Australian journalist to Broad and asked the latter to give him bytes on whether the dressing room review was reported or would be reported.”

The journalist on March 17, 2017, at 4.14 pm reported: 'Match officials say only time they are aware of Australians looking up to dressing room for guidance was Smith incident today.’

While Kohli accused Australia of looking at the dressing room more than once, what has baffled the Indian camp is that the match official spoke with the said journalist. "Broad has broken the ICC protocol here and nobody is looking into it," a Team India member was quoted as saying.

Further, the Indians have also been left displeased by the  "synchronized effort" by the Australians and their media manager to share dressing room conversations with the Australian journalists from session to session.

"At the end of every session, the Australian media manager goes to the dressing room where she is briefed by the team manager. She then goes and plants it with the Australian journalists. For instance, in Ranchi, when Australian players were sledging Virat by using physio Patrick Farhat's name, even the stump mic didn't catch it nor Virat spoke about it. However, at the end of the day's play, the Australian journalists started asking Virat about the incident," the team member said.

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