It is a very well-known fact that the Australian media is the twelfth man of the Australian cricket team. The media takes up the responsibility of sledging the players from the opposition to unsettle them. They often target the star players to try and get under their skin. This tactic has provided them with mixed results but they always keep going for it.
Stumpsandbails bring to you 5 instances where the Australian media sledged the opposition to try and unsettle them.
#5 Calling the England team “Pathetic Poms” during Ashes 2017-18
Right since the turn of this century the ashes battle between Australia and England has got pretty intense. It isn’t as lopsided as it was 2 decades ago. But still, the home team continues to have an advantage over the visiting team. During the 2017-18 ashes when the English side visited down under, they were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by the Aussies and the Australian media didn’t waste any time to remind this to the England team. As and when the result of the 3rd Test match came through, an Australian newspaper, Daily Telegraph remarked that “Rivalry dead: Brilliant Aussies humiliate pathetic Poms. God Save The Ashes”.
#4 Australian media mocked Kohli’s disastrous run in England
Australian media had forgotten that Virat Kohli had scored 4 centuries in 4 Test Matches in the 2014-15 series down under. But what it remembered was Kohli’s forgettable tour to England in 2014 when he scored just 134 runs in 10 innings. So before India’s tour to England in 2018, the Australian media channel released a video saying, “Kohli’s issues in England” and captioned it as,” Kohli’s favourite shot in England.”
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#3 Humiliating Tendulkar during the monkey gate scandal
It is a well-documented fact that the monkey gate scandal had severe repercussions on the Australian players and the media. They realised that they are no longer the epicenter of cricket. The Australian media became aware of the power that the BCCI wielded on world cricket. When India were about to tour Australia in 2011-12, their journalists wasted no time in talking about the monkey gate scandal and played the victim card. One of the articles went on to humiliate the biggest cricketing icon in the world, Sachin Tendulkar. The article quoted that the monkey gate scandal was Tendulkar’s deepest shame.
#2 Indian team was called as “SCAREDY BATS” during their 2018-19 tour
The Australian team, their media couldn’t come to terms with India winning its maiden Test series in Australia. Hence the Australian media tried all sorts of things to lower the magnitude of India’s victory. One of the news publications mocked India for not playing in the Gabba, Brisbane, which traditionally hosts the first Test match for Australia during their summer. Another news publication termed India to be scared of the unknown as the Indian team refused to participate in a day-night encounter owing to its lack of match practice.
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#1 Fabricating a bio-bubble breach story to distract the Indian team
The Australian team nor its media contingent expected the Indian team to make such a monumental comeback in the 2nd Test after suffering such a humiliating loss in the first Test. Expectedly the Australian media made mountain out of a molehill when it published yet to confirm the news that there has been a bio-bubble reach by 5 Indian players. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and Prithvi Shaw were the players who were maligned without the verification of the episode. The BCCI quashed the proceedings saying that there has been no bio-bubble breach and all the concerned players were tested negative.
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