Even though the stands will be bleeding blue when India plays England today, Team India will be sporting the orange-navy blue jersey and captain Kohli quite likes it. “I quite like it. For me, it’s right up there. For me, it would be an 8 (on 10),” he said to bit of disbelief and general laughter in the Press room. “Honestly, I'm not saying it for the sake of it. I really like it because it looks nice. The contrast is really nice. The fit is great. It's a nice change,” he insisted. After finishing his pre-match Press conference at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Kohli unveiled the new jersey which has been the talk of the nation, fuelling up saffron discussions and nays with national headlines. Even for Kohli though, it looked good only for one-time usage. “For one game, it’s fine. I don’t think permanently we’ll be heading in that direction because blue has always been our colour, and we’re very proud to wear that. For a change and looking at the occasion, I think it’s a very, very smart kit,” he added after holding it up for the lensmen and then saying it looks as if “I am here to wash it.” The deep blue part in the front has been elevated to navy blue with some bright orange, but the back is entirely saffron.
Kids query skippers
It was a bit of changed format for the Press conference at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground today with the captains of both the teams being introduced to the media by a cherubic 11-year-old Edward, all dressed up in cricketing formals and sporting a very English accent. “Hello everyone. We’re the Playground Pundits, and we’re taking over tomorrow’s (today) match to help raise money for children. I’ll be your media manager. I’m very excited to introduce India's captain Virat Kohli,” handing over the mic to his colleague Neha.
Three cricket-playing school children, selected through online questionnaires and interviews all over England, kicked off the pre-match Press conference to ask their own pertinent questions. They were part of ICC’s Cricket for Good campaign in partnership with UNICEF, the ‘One Day 4 Children’ aims at uniting fans to ensure that children across the world have the chance to play, learn and be healthy with unique activations. Throwing the first question at skipper Kohli, Neha a Class V student from Haywood, a London suburb, asked: “Are you and the Indian team excited for tomorrow’s (today) match?” Kohli, despite an indulgent smile on his face, answered in all earnestness: “Yes, Neha. Thank you for the lovely question. We are excited. It's a very special occasion, the first time that it’s been done, and we’re very proud that we’re a part of such a special game and I hope all of you are excited to watch as well.”
Both the teams will be sporting jerseys with the OneDay4Children logo embossed on them for the big match.
The money raised through #OneDay4Children will support UNICEF’s work for children in cricket playing nations across the world, with many projects using the unique power of cricket to deliver these objectives. Eoin was at the end of a pointed one from Rudra: “Hello, Eoin. How do you prepare your England side for as big a match as tomorrow’s (today)?” he asked. “I think, when you’re preparing for a game like tomorrow, you tend to call on previous occasions when you’ve played the team that you’re going to play the following day. You gain confidence or look at strengths, the positive things that have happened, and look forward to the game ahead,” Morgan told him.
OJ Simpson to Cricket
The last exciting job Jacquie did was to stenograph OJ Simpson’s trial. Some years down the line, this 50-year-old mother of four all the way from the American East Coast, is doing cricket as no other can do. She has been staring down the skippers and the talkers at Press conferences while she notes down every single word on her stenograph machine to simultaneously transcribe it on her computer into long words which is then posted on the media zone of the ICC for journalists to get all the transcripts in not more than 15 minutes after the conference is over. Now that is quick, actually pretty quick, if you know how good an American can be with cricketing talk! “New Zealand’s Neesham was quite a double whammy for me. First his accent went over my head and then the cricket terminology! The question was about something like deep backward square leg and I was like Where is that!,” she tells you with a laugh. On a more serious note, this is her second cricketing assignment, the first being the Champions Trophy in 2017 during which time she laboriously learnt the terminologies of a game quite alien to the Americans. She is here on assignment from ASAP Sports, a sports transcription company hired by the ICC for this World Cup, which otherwise is big time into tennis grand slam transcriptions. “CT was a trial and doing cricket is fun. But I have studied to be a court reporter and worked as the court steno for 11 years. I stenographed the OJ Simpson civil trial. He was so creepily friendly and everyone liked him so much but there is no doubt in my mind that he did it,” she insists all these years after he has been acquitted. “Though by the time the civil trial started there was lot more to suggest you know… but he got away as he had already hidden all his millions,” she says. Murder trials, general crime, personal injury and medical stuff have all gone on record through her speed-breaking typing skills. But her favourite are college sports in the US. “Well in college sports back home, you hate more teams than you like, like it is in cricket rivalries,” she says, insisting that the “sweet Afghans” got a real raw deal from India after having them by the collar! On the work front, Jacquie has bought a computer software which cost her $6,000. It transcribes her shorthand into longhand and also does the required corrections within seconds. Sanjay Bangar was quite difficult to understand accent wise, she says, adding that all the other Indian players have been, well, understandable. So, is she here for the Final at Lord’s? “No, no I am super bombed, I am not doing the Final,” she says with regret and a wink to follow.
