Tag: kl rahul

Indian Test squad for South Africa series announced: Rahul dropped, Rohit set to open

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian cricket team for Paytm Freedom Series for Gandhi-Mandela Trophy has been announced. The notable omission from the team is KL Rahul, who had a bad test series in West Indies. Shubman Gill has been named as his replacement. Rahul’s omission propels senior batsman Rohit Sharma to the opener’s role in red-ball cricket.

Rookie Punjab batsman Shubman Gill has been rewarded with a place in the Test side as back-up floater, who can fit in both as an opener and a middle-order batsman.

“Yes, we are definitely looking at him (Rohit) and want to give him an opportunity up the order. He is keen (on opening) and the selection committee as well as everyone (team management) is keen. We want to see where he stands and then take a call,” said Chairman of Selectors MSK Prasad after the meeting of the panel.

“With regards to Shubman Gill, we look at him as an opener as well as middle-order batsman. We are looking at him as back-up for both the slots. As he keeps playing more and more, he will get his opportunities, because he is a player for all three formats,” he observed.

Another significant development was that Rishabh Pant, despite retaining his place in the squad, could lose his spot in the playing XI to a more accomplished Wriddhiman Saha.

India’s first Test against South Africa will start in Visakhapatnam on October 2, while the second and third games will be held in Pune (October 10-14) and Ranchi (October 19-23) respectively.

Umesh Yadav was dropped from the side as, in Indian conditions, one can’t have the luxury of four specialist pacers when only two will finally play.

Rohit will captain the Board President’s XI in a three-day warm-up match against the Proteas in Vizianagaram from September 26, where he will also test himself in the new role.

The 32-year-old’s stupendous success in white ball cricket has prompted the selectors to take a call on his batting position.

“He is opening in white-ball cricket for a decade now (for six years) and I am sure he has that ability to bat up the order. We have seen that in red ball cricket and if he can replicate that in white ball cricket, nothing like it,” Prasad said.

For Rahul, who has scored only one Test hundred in over 18 months, Prasad said that the Karnataka player got a fair run but a dip in form forced the panel to go for a change.

“We definitely communicated to KL. He is an exceptional talent and unfortunately his form has dipped in red-ball cricket,” Prasad said.

“With Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay gone, we can’t keep changing both the openers in the side. Someone had to stick around. And probably with seniors, who exiting, KL got more opportunities. Unfortunately, he was not delivering consistently. He delivered in patches and that’s why we backed him because when he is on song, he is treat to watch.”

Asked what the road ahead is for Rahul, Prasad gave the example of VVS Laxman. “When VVS Laxman was once dropped from the Indian team, he went back to domestic cricket, scored 1400 runs in the Ranji Trophy and came back. KL has to do the same,” said Prasad.

The selectors indicated that they have created a pool of openers and whoever now gets an opportunity, will get a long rope just like Rahul did.

“So you know, in the pipeline, Shubman is opening and we have Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is doing extremely well. From the available lot, we will look at giving them as many opportunities.

“Whoever gets an opportunity, also gets a fair run. We have alternatives and back-ups, we have created bench strength,” Prasad asserted.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya was not included in the side because there is very little chance of him fitting into the XI in the Indian conditions.

“Hardik is not in the side because if you look at home conditions, he may not fit in. Also a lot of white ball cricket being played, it’s a culmination of both.”

Prasad also gave a fair indication that team management’s patience with Rishabh Pant is finally running out even though he remains the first-choice for the selection panel.

Asked who among Rishabh or Wriddhiman the first choice is, Prasad gave a twisted reply.

“My answer is same. Let’s see. Rishabh definitely to begin with but we will see whether the team management thinks on those lines. Let’s leave it to them. Also in India, we need a ‘keeper with some more skills playing at home, let’s see how it goes,” he said.

Prasad also felt that it’s better that Umesh Yadav plays domestic cricket as he has no chance to fit in the playing XI when one among Ishant and Shami will be dropped at home.

“We couldn’t have Umesh here as it will be two seamers who will play. If it’s really a seaming track, we go for the third one. So Umesh may not play. For him, it is better to play domestic cricket as we are in domestic season. He is in India A side,” Prasad added.

India’s squad for 3 Tests:

Virat Kohli (Capt), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk),Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill

With agency inputs

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The online inquisition of Hardik Pandya

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Do you believe in books finding you? This Idea Is Brilliant, a book edited by edge.org founder John Brockman, found me last week. I don’t know if somebody had gifted it, or did I buy and forget about it? But I am just grateful for it. Published in 2018, it keeps its promise of assembling “lost, overlooked, and under-appreciated scientific concepts everyone should know”. 

Most of the concepts are narrated in small essays. But the one that stayed with me is a paragraph—yes, it is only one-paragraph long —by recording producer Brian Eno on ‘Confirmation Bias’. His observation resonated in the week of cricketer Hardik Pandya’s online inquisition or persecution, depending on what your own bias or belief is!

Here’s what Eno, a legendary producer for music bands like U2 and Coldplay writes: “The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway.”

Online inquisitions become potent when there is a video. And the season never ends.

In June 2018, captain of the Indian cricket team Virat Kohli posted a video on Twitter. It showed his wife and actor Anushka Sharma scolding a person in a luxury car who had thrown garbage on the road. The recorded video is still on his verified Twitter handle. It got retweeted 21,800 times, and liked by 1.29 lakh followers! “If you see something wrong happening like this, do the same & spread awareness,” Kohli tweeted.

In contrast, the two most recent online inquisitions in the past month emanated from traditional media, TV. The more sensational one involved the remarks of cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul on talk show Koffee With Karan. Both were called back home from Australia, where the Indian team is touring, as a punishment from employer, the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Pandya’s comments, in particular, are under the scanner. Star India’s online streaming app Hotstar has pulled down the episode.

Also Read: The republic of hurt sentiments, and the vilification of Hardik Pandya

Around a week before that, a video featuring Rani Mukherjee with an array of her Bollywood colleagues, aired on another TV channel New 18. Netizens on Facebook and Twitter came down heavily on the different types and degrees of misogyny and gender stereotyping.

What fascinated me was the silent and gender-neutral presence of the fourth wall—the video camera. If you are a journalist, this matters. In an age when it is OK to shoot or punish the messenger, the camera shoots what it sees, at least on legitimate TV networks.

A TV show camera records the biases and defence (or no defence, as in the Koffee With Karan video), before the kaleidoscopic social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) amplify and generate myriad reactions. On an established TV network, such videos reach more people in India than it would have if Kohli himself had shot and posted a video online. Worryingly, for corporates and advertisers, there is nowhere to hide as a video can resurface of icons they have signed on ‘shooting’ themselves in the foot.

Interestingly, at least a couple of YouTube content creators have begun to plug advertisements of apps as ‘paid promotions’ in their commentary of the Pandya moment on Koffee With Karan. It really boils down to how information online conforms with our beliefs, needs and who we are.

Find the Normal

In the US and UK, traditional media’s share of media consumption has dropped to nearly 60 percent. The rest is digital media. This 2018 estimate by consulting firm BCG was based on measuring hours of media consumed per week. In India though, the same estimate points out that while digital video consumption is growing sharply, there isn’t a substantial decline in TV consumption.

Around 75 percent of the demographic aged less than 23 years still consumes TV. That figure rises to 78 percent for the 24-38 years age group, and rises even further to 82 percent for viewers in India aged between 39 and 53 years. Consequently, provocative material on Indian television networks is ripe for eyeballs and for the online regurgitation. Don’t forget, traditional networks and TV faces began to build credibility long before their digital counterparts.

The camera now demands neutrality. In the #MeToo era we are part of, there is a problem even with that media adage, “Content is King.”

As consumers, this reform is happening online. I think about the time I cracked or laughed at a sexist joke on a WhatsApp group, causing people to leave the group. My laugh had reinforced a stereotype. Such boycotts are much-needed signals to watch our words in the digital world, just as we should know better in the real world. ‘Writing on the wall’ isn’t a metaphor anymore. We type out our biases, as we spend more time of our lives online.

For traditional media networks in India, the past month poses huge learnings because of the simultaneous impact online. In the Brockman book, behavioural economist Richard M Thaler evokes Gary Klein’s idea of “the Premortem” in his essay. Premortem is the opposite of postmortem. “Assume we are at some time in the future when the plan has been implemented—and the outcome was a disaster. Write a brief history of that disaster,” Thaler writes. It involves unearthing devil’s advocates to counter biases on camera. Otherwise, video is unforgiving. Video has a way of nailing rodeo stars.

Tech Trail is a column that delves on technology in the Indian realm. Kunal Talgeri is a freelance journalist in Bengaluru. The views in this column are those of the author.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Rahul, Pandya comments not supported by team mates, says Virat Kohli

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Comments made by players KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya that have been widely condemned as sexist were “inappropriate” and not supported by their team mates, captain Virat Kohli said on Friday.

Batsman Rahul and all-rounder Pandya have been heavily criticised in India and on social media for comments made on a television show earlier this week.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have asked the pair to explain the comments and Pandya has apologised. Both, however, could still face sanctions.

“From the Indian cricket team point of view, any inappropriate comments that are made in that scenario are something that we definitely don’t support,” Kohli told reporters on Friday ahead of the first one-dayer against Australia.

“The two concerned players felt what has gone wrong and they have understood the magnitude. It has to hit anyone hard, they will definitely understand the things that have not gone right.

“These are purely individual opinions … we definitely, as the Indian cricket team, do not support views like that and that has been communicated.”

Kohli said he was not aware of any sanctions being handed down but the side would adapt if the pair were ruled out of the three-match series.

“From the combination and team balance point of view, yes, you’ll have to think about the combination you’ll need now,” Kohli said.

“You don’t have control over these things so you have to address it the way it unfolds. That’s how we are looking at it.”

“The combinations will have to be looked at when the decision comes out and from there on we’ll see what needs to be done about the whole situation.”

Kohli’s side enter the one-day series on a high, having sealed their first test series victory in Australia earlier this week when the fourth match ended in a draw.

“Definitely not going to dampen anything that we’ve achieved,” he said.

“You have to adjust with the situation. We need to go out there and play cricket.”

“All these external factors are not going to derail our motivation or the preparation for the World Cup.”

Disclosure: All matters brought to Network18’s attention which are within the purview of the workplace have been forwarded to our Internal Committee for Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the workplace for appropriate action. The Internal Committee is independent and all recommendations made by it are followed through by Management action.

Network18 Group has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment. The company complies fully with all legal provisions and seeks to ensure a speedy and effective Redressal on complaints.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

New sexism scandal for cricket after TV misogyny by Pandya, Rahul

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Two Indian cricketers have sparked outrage after a run of misogynist comments on prime television, prompting calls for gender sensitisation in a sport rife with sex scandal.

Hardik Pandya and Lokesh Rahul were guests on an episode of ‘Koffee with Karan’ – a popular TV chat show that aired on Sunday – where the former boasted about a crowded sex life and objectified women by casually dissecting their bodies.

People took to social media in vast numbers to criticise Pandya, as well as Rahul and show host Karan Johar, a Bollywood producer and director, saying they were complicit.

It also triggered an official backlash, with India’s main cricket board, the BCCI, asking the duo for a speedy explanation at a time when the sport’s mores are already under scrutiny.

Casual sexism is nothing new to cricket, after West Indies batsman Chris Gayle made louche suggestions to female reporters and appeared to treat them as sex objects in incidents in 2016.

Australian-born cricketer Alex Hepburn is on trial in Britain after he was accused of raping a sleeping woman as part of a sex game conducted on WhatsApp. He denies the allegation.

In 2015, Sri Lankan cricket authorities sacked three officials after allegations that members of the women’s national team had been forced to perform sexual favours in order to earn or keep their places in the squad.

Australian spin-bowling legend Shane Warne’s career was riddled with sex controversies dating back nearly two decades.

Boys Will Be Boys?

Experts say the BCCI intervention is crucial to ensure “locker room talk” is not normalised in India, where cricket is a national obsession and top players are revered by millions.

“With power comes responsibility and in Hardik’s case, it was an act of complete irresponsibility,” cricket historian Boria Majumdar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

He said cricketers, who join the national team from a range of backgrounds and regions, can get swept away by fame and believe their every move “will be appreciated and accepted”.

“We need to mentor and groom our cricketers… We need to help them understand where to draw the line,” he said.

A wave of #MeToo revelations has rocked India, breaking a culture of silence around sexual attack, harassment and everyday sexism, calling men to account in a male-dominated country.

The campaign has hit many high-profile public personalities including those in the media, Bollywood, corporates and sport.

But changing attitudes on and off the pitch is proving hard.

Sex And Race

Pandya, 25, managed to mix sexism and racism on the TV show.

Bejewelled and wearing yellow sunglasses, Pandya said he emulates the “West Indies and black culture”, which he credited for teaching him just how to treat women.

“You are just watching (women at a nightclub). You are just watching and observing how they move,” he said.

“I am a little from the black side, so I have to see how they move first. Then I can imagine the picture.”

He also said that when he lost his virginity, he bragged to his parents and, when at a party, pointed to multiple women and told his parents: “I have something going on with each of them”.

On Wednesday, Pandya posted an apology on social media, saying he “got carried away with the nature of the show” – which encourages guests to gossip and divulge personal details.

But the cricket board is not happy with an apology and may impose more penalties, according to NDTV news channel’s website.

“Such action is necessary, and important, for the most obvious reason: Hardik Pandya’s casual misogyny and sexism speak directly to the larger problem that is roiling our society,” said Prem Panicker, a senior cricket journalist.

Disclosure: All matters brought to Network18’s attention which are within the purview of the workplace have been forwarded to our Internal Committee for Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the workplace for appropriate action. The Internal Committee is independent and all recommendations made by it are followed through by Management action.

Network18 Group has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment. The company complies fully with all legal provisions and seeks to ensure a speedy and effective Redressal on complaints.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow