Dean Jones rubbished Michael Clarke’s previous comments targeting at the Australian players. Clarke blamed them of not sledging Indian cricket captain for the sake of Indian Premier League contracts.
Jones explains why Aussies don’t upset Kohli
Former Australia players Dean Jones claimed that Australian always avoided upsetting players. Michael Clarke had earlier said that to save the IPL contracts, the Australian players did not mess with Virat Kohli. But Dean Jones rejected such claims. He said, “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.”
In the interaction with Sportscreen on their YouTube channel, he explained, “Don’t give them any oxygen. But I find this reason about not upsetting Virat because of IPL contracts a bit rubbish. Is Virat going to stop anyone from playing? That is down to the coaches and managers.”
Tim Paine goes against Clarke as well
Even Tim Paine, the Test cricket captain of Australia cricket team told ESPNCricinfo that nothing like that happened during the closely-fought series against India. He also added that fighting with Kohli means motivating him for playing better. “I’m not sure who was going easy on him; we certainly had a thing where we didn’t want to provoke any fight with him because we think that’s when he plays at his best.”
He went on to add that players give their absolute all while representing the country and IPL was never a reason for holding back. “Who knows what will happen this series and, as we saw in the documentary, there was still quite a lot of heat in some of those games. I certainly wasn’t holding back, but again the IPL’s not a huge draw for me at the moment, so I had nothing to lose. But anytime our guys go out and play a Test match for Australia, they’ll be giving their absolute all and I’m pretty sure they’re not thinking about an IPL contract when they’re running in, bowling to Virat.”
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