Former Indian captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth on Wednesday (April 15) came hard at the former Australia captain Michael Clarke over his recent remark on India’s historical Test triumph last year in Australia.
Clarke claimed that current Australian players were too scared to "sledge" Indian cricket team and captain Virat Kohli in order to protect their million dollars Indian Premier League (IPL) deals and that played a role in their 2-1 defeat in the 2018-19 four-match Test series down under.
Read Also: Pat Cummins responds in disagreement with Clarke's "sucking up" to Kohli comment
He also said Tim Paine and his team "sucked up" to Kohli-led India team which resulted in their cricket becoming "soft" to just win the IPL contract.
Clarke told Big Sports Breakfast: “Everybody knows how powerful India is in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL. I feel that Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went the opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April.”
He further added, “Name a list of 10 players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team. The players were like: ‘I’m not going to sledge Kohli, I want him to pick me for Bangalore so I can make my $1 million US for my six weeks’.”
Well, Clarke’s comments didn’t really do down well with Srikkanth, former chairman of the Indian selection committee, slamming the former Australian captain for his ridiculous statement by saying the sledging cannot help teams win matches and no one can score runs or get wickets through sledging.
Srikkanth said on Star Sports 'Cricket Connected' show, “You do not win matches just by sledging. Aussie’s loss is a loss, his statement was ridiculous I would say. If you ask Nasser Hussain or Sir Vivian Richards who are experienced players, you can never score runs or get wickets through sledging.”
He signed off, “You need to play good cricket and showcase determination; you need to bowl well to get wickets and bat well to achieve targets. Sledging cannot help in any way according to my opinion,”
(With Star Sports Inputs)
