Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Come on India. Get angry. Get aggressive. Shake a leg. Fight back. For goodness sake, do something.” That was an exhortation from an Australian journalist in 1999 at the end of another masochistic Indian cricket tour Down Under. Whitewash in Australia is a phrase Indian cricket fans have been familiar with for decades. Only, it used to be the Indian team that would be at the receiving end. Through the 1970s to the 1990s, and even in the last decade, occasional wins against Australia in their home would be lapped up with glee. Seen in that context, the current Indian team’s 3-0 triumph in T20 is a path-breaking effort.
One statistic tells the transformation story: Six hundreds were scored in the five ODIs — some Australian cricketers have admitted to being awed by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s batting. Over the years, even fans had come to rationalise the bruising tours of Australia — the big grounds, the kookaburra ball, the unfriendly crowds, snarling Australian players, huge gap in fielding standards, the hostile home press. Anything and everything has been used to explain away Indian defeats. For this Indian team to have overcome all that, especially after teetering on the edge of being whitewashed in the ODIs, is a splendid achievement.
