Amid coronavirus pandemic, cricketers be it active or former, are taking parts in online chat sessions and surfacing their opinions on various topics. Following the bandwagon, former-Australian cricketer Dean Jones participated in an interview organised by Sportscreen.
During the conversation, Jones was quizzed on the comments made by former Aussie captain Michael Clarke in April that Australian team “sucked up” to India skipper Virat Kohli in order to secure lucrative deals in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Clarke had said that the Aussies were “too scared to sledge” Kohli or other Indian players due to the influence of IPL.
Responding to the question, Jones said that the Australia team did not say anything to Kohli because it was entirely in their best interests. The 59-year-old rolled back to the history and gave examples of Sir Viv Richards and Martin Crowe stating that the then Australia went quiet when they would arrive as the Kangaroos didn’t want to upset the bear and a similar story is with Kohli and MS Dhoni.
“I will tell you the reason why they went quiet on Virat because we went quiet when Viv Richards came out to bat. We went quiet on Javed Miandad, on Martin Crowe. And there is a reason behind that – You don’t upset the bear, you don’t upset Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni because this is what they like – a confrontation,” said Jones.
“We know when someone is feeling down, the pitch is not great, nothing is going on, and all of a sudden if anyone has a snap at you, then you lift your ears and say ‘oh, you have something to say’,” he added.
Jones found Clarke’s remarks a bit rubbish and said it’s not about the IPL deals as Kohli doesn’t stop anyone from playing.
“Don’t give them any oxygen. But I find this reason about not upsetting Virat because of IPL contracts a bit of rubbish. Is Virat going to stop anyone from playing? That is down to the coaches and managers,” Jones added further.
