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India has drawn first blood in the inevitable war of words with Australia ... but it’s not through any player or coach.
Indian media has taken it upon itself to throw the first barb in what will no doubt be a fiery - yet hopefully friendly - series Down Under between the two proud cricketing nations this summer.
The tour kicks off with a Twenty20 International in Brisbane on Wednesday, and the four-Test series begins in Adelaide on December 6.
And while Australia and India are level pegging in the market with most bookmakers, many pundits are backing the visitors to win their first ever Test series on Australian soil.
New Indian Express columnist Pradeep Magazine wrote a stinging assessment of Australian cricket.
“Australia, the land of the self-assured, and many would say smug, cricketers while playing on home territory, are today a nation in turmoil. Their self proclaimed superior ‘sporting culture’ which they used to take immense pride in, is in tatters,” Magazine wrote this week.
“Embarrassment has replaced the pride they used to take in playing the ‘Australian Way’, a euphemism for playing in a hard, overtly aggressive and arrogant manner, which gave primacy to the end result and cared little about the means adopted.”
Magazine went as high as the top of Cricket Australia with his brutal criticism.
“They are applying sharp-edged scissors to dissect an attitudinal problem that has been shaped by years of nurturing by the establishment. The psychological scars of a quick-fix approach to correct a systemic problem can cause greater damage than solving the problem.
“It is against this backdrop that the Indian team is embarking on this tour. For the first time in many decades an Indian team is going to play against an Australian side that is extremely low in morale and strength.
“Its batting is in shambles, struggling in the absence of two of their main pillars. There is a leadership crisis within and outside the team.
“For the Indians this is a real opportunity to plunge the dagger deep into their already wounded hearts. Nothing will give the Indians greater pleasure than seeing the Australians sink deeper into an abyss created by their own ‘misdeeds’.”
But it seems not all Indian media is on the side of the powerful BCCI.
The country’s governing cricket body was forced to issue a press release to deny claims made by a Mumbai newspaper that national captain Virat Kohli had been instructed to tone down his aggressive, confrontational approach.
The report claimed Kohli had received a WhatsApp message from the Committee of Administrators with the instructions. The BCCI says no such message was ever sent.
Kohli himself has already claimed he won’t be igniting a war of words with the Australians, despite his penchant for on-field confrontation.
Indian media has taken it upon itself to throw the first barb in what will no doubt be a fiery - yet hopefully friendly - series Down Under between the two proud cricketing nations this summer.
The tour kicks off with a Twenty20 International in Brisbane on Wednesday, and the four-Test series begins in Adelaide on December 6.
And while Australia and India are level pegging in the market with most bookmakers, many pundits are backing the visitors to win their first ever Test series on Australian soil.
New Indian Express columnist Pradeep Magazine wrote a stinging assessment of Australian cricket.
“Australia, the land of the self-assured, and many would say smug, cricketers while playing on home territory, are today a nation in turmoil. Their self proclaimed superior ‘sporting culture’ which they used to take immense pride in, is in tatters,” Magazine wrote this week.
“Embarrassment has replaced the pride they used to take in playing the ‘Australian Way’, a euphemism for playing in a hard, overtly aggressive and arrogant manner, which gave primacy to the end result and cared little about the means adopted.”
Magazine went as high as the top of Cricket Australia with his brutal criticism.
“They are applying sharp-edged scissors to dissect an attitudinal problem that has been shaped by years of nurturing by the establishment. The psychological scars of a quick-fix approach to correct a systemic problem can cause greater damage than solving the problem.
“It is against this backdrop that the Indian team is embarking on this tour. For the first time in many decades an Indian team is going to play against an Australian side that is extremely low in morale and strength.
“Its batting is in shambles, struggling in the absence of two of their main pillars. There is a leadership crisis within and outside the team.
“For the Indians this is a real opportunity to plunge the dagger deep into their already wounded hearts. Nothing will give the Indians greater pleasure than seeing the Australians sink deeper into an abyss created by their own ‘misdeeds’.”
But it seems not all Indian media is on the side of the powerful BCCI.
The country’s governing cricket body was forced to issue a press release to deny claims made by a Mumbai newspaper that national captain Virat Kohli had been instructed to tone down his aggressive, confrontational approach.
The report claimed Kohli had received a WhatsApp message from the Committee of Administrators with the instructions. The BCCI says no such message was ever sent.
Kohli himself has already claimed he won’t be igniting a war of words with the Australians, despite his penchant for on-field confrontation.