A scheduled press match between the Indian and Australian media was canceled after Indian media reportedly boycotted a pre-arranged game following a row in a press conference involving allrounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The T20 game scheduled at Junction Oval in Melbourne today was cancelled after the Indian cricket team's media manager took a decision not to engage. This decision prompted several from the travelling media contingent into withdrawing as well, in turn making it impossible for a formal match to come together, according to quotes from multiple sources in the report in The Age.
This incident was followed by a press conference involving Jadeja on Saturday, and in this, the spinner responded to questions in Hindi.
After a half an hour delay in the media appearance scheduled after India completed her training session at the ground. Jadeja started asking questions from Indian journalists. At the end of nine minutes of discussion in Hindi, the presser was cancelled as the team bus left. Therefore, the player could not stay any further, according to India's media manager.
However, some Australian media are claiming that Jadeja has refused to answer questions in English. "The Australian media were bemused and confused when the star allrounder refused to answer questions in English. It was obviously an annoying situation for the journalists who made the effort to turn up," Channel 7 said in its report.
In reality, Jadeja never refused to answer questions in English. He answered mainly in Hindi because the Indian reporters asked their questions exclusively in that language.
Relations between the Indian team and the local media went sour on Thursday when the squad began to arrive in Melbourne, but the most dramatic was star batter Virat Kohli having a heated exchange with a journalist, as he seemed perturbed by the presence of cameras directed at his family.
The fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series begins on Thursday at the MCG, as the series is levelled at 1-1.
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