Media Watch | Virat Kohli remains Australian media’s favourite barrel for taking shots

The T20I series that the Indian team played soon after they landing could in no way be considered even a warm-up. And with the three-match series ending in a 1-1 draw, the media there couldn’t find the magnet that could suck out the ‘Australianism’ simmering underneath. But, there has always been one refuge for those whose souls are coarsely and intrusively invaded, it is sarcasm.

The way the Australian media have used it to their cause with Virat Kohli as their poster boy is commendable. The first thing Kohli did after landing in Brisbane at the beginning of the tour was hit the gym, and of course, post it on Instagram. It was quite impressive, for many had assumed the Indian players to take to bed after the flight.

The Australian media were impressed too, but in a different way. While Kohli has become an epitome of fitness to all cricket fans around the world, his hard work reminded the media there, of the old Indian cricketers, who had once disappointed former coach John Wright with their terrible fitness regime.

“He (Wright) often tells the story of the day he went to a gym in Mumbai with one of his senior players and soon after a group of Australians including Matthew Hayden filed in. Immediately, their eyes turned to the Indian batsman who was on an exercise bike wearing sandals, sitting nonchalantly upright and going so slowly he had not raised so much as a bead of sweat,” writes The Courier Mail’s Robert Craddock.

“He felt right there and then Australian has seized an advantage, as if they were viewing a team stuck in a bygone era, which India unquestionably were. A few months before the gym exchange Wright banned lounge chairs from Indian training. It irked him that batsmen would finish their net sessions and retreat to their decadent lounge chairs and have tea and snacks served as if they had just climbed down from Mt Everest rather than a 20 minute hit,” it further read.

After losing his way in the middle with the suffocating pride, Cradock, however, managed to mention how Virat Kohli has changed India’s training forever, replacing the once cosy lounge chair in India’s training breaks with nut butter and gluten free bread. The skipper was used in the beginning of the piece to bring a parallel to India’s older unfit cricketers and also, in the end, to point out the visitor’s struggle under trying situation.

“It just shows you can count every calorie that goes into your body, go around every witches hat and training and be guided by programs that send man to the moon but if you can’t work out which way Jimmy Anderson is swinging the ball at Lord’s or how to handle Kagiso Rabada’s 150kmh thunderbolts none of it matters much,” read the conclusion.

Fast forward to a fortnight later and Virat Kohli is again in the limelight in their media in a similar, subtle and sarcastic way. While he was credited for typifying “India’s new professionalism” in the last piece, the skipper has been headlined the “Australian of the Year” this time. But, once again, the façade was highly deceitful and this time they had a very good reason to go all out. Kohli’s over-aggressiveness at Optus was condemned by many, even Indians with Sanjay Manjrekar even claiming that the brand Kohli has been getting away with many things that other players wouldn’t.

However, the Australian media tried using the narrow scope to regain something that is impossible – their dignity. Following the sandpaper gate, Cricket Australia has tried behaving guilty, revolutionary, and exemplary in their decisions, but to no avail. Steve Smith and David Warner would be returning to the international circuit in months after finishing their exile but can they ever shake off the social stigma hooked to their flesh? Kudos to Australian media for trying though.

Suddenly, Viral Kohli, who was India’s insurgent professional before the series started, was renamed as “Tim Paine’s banter bunny” and ”Captain Yappy” with Greg Davis of the Courier-Mail somehow sympathizing with Australia’s current situation and swelling with pride on Paine’s actions. 

“Kicking the Australian cricket team when it was down became a national sport – just look on social media when a Marsh brother comes out to bat. But as soon as Captain Yappy started kicking sand in our face ... well, that was it. We drew a line in said sand,” read the piece.

“But Paine wasn’t copping it. He stood tall and owned the multi-millionaire motor mouth with some genuinely funny verbal shots, gritty batting and outstanding captaincy. Kohli picked a fight with the wrong little Tassie scrapper. The kind of scrapper with the diploma from the school of hard knocks that we love as a sporting nation,” it further read.

The Australian media being frustrated by Kohli being a millionaire, a better batsman than their entire current squad combined, and obviously exuding a confidence their previous stalwarts always wanted to feel but could only pretend, is quite natural but they have concealed it by complaining about ICC’s hypocrisy in not taking action against the Indian skipper.

Stating the Kohli-Paine incident, Davis wrote, “If any Australian carried on like that, they would be crucified but Kohli is untouchable. The hypocrisy is as mind-boggling as it is infuriating. The ICC, match referees and umpires simply won’t pull him up and they should be ashamed of that lack of action. It’s a joke,” but of course, not ending the harmless complaint but a typically inherited Australian jibe, “His players are arguing with each other, his openers can’t hit it off the square, they can’t clean up our wagging tail and they have injury dramas as well.”

Channel 7’s revelation of Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja’s fight hours after the match, which was released in two parts – first the video and then the audio – properly highlights Australian media’s tendency of intrusive TV coverage and is a classic case of making a mountain out of a molehill. 

It is also a meek attempt at climbing the stairs of heaven after falling from grace, for Australian media somehow feels that it is a grave offence letting off steam with a fellow teammate concerning fielding positions, but it is perfect banter when done with an opponent player at tea-break hiding from the public eye unaware of the CCTV camera recording it all. 

A good reason for it could also be that the media there know that ICC would never pull out Kohli amidst the claims of him “crossing the line” because he might have gone chest to chest with Paine after he finished his run, but he would never throw the ball at Paine when he is down on the ground just after being run out, for as Sunil Gavaskar recently stated, “Australia are used to playing like that, we are not. It's not in our DNA to play cricket like that.”