Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday came out fighting once again in the James Anderson-Ravindra Jadeja case, firmly stating that he stands by what he said during the whole saga and that they brought forward “something that was unacceptable”.
Ahead of the fourth Test versus England, starting here tomorrow, all the talk continued to be about the incident that has marred the five-match series.
“I did something that was right and I stand for what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Dhoni, referring to his support for the all-rounder.
“If something wrong is happening, I will go against it irrespective of who is doing it. If one of my players gets fined and if he’s within the boundary lines, I will definitely go and defend him. But if he crosses that line, I won’t come and he will go alone and face the consequences.”
When asked if the ICC verdict was personal humiliation for him since he was so vocal about the issue, Dhoni denied the same and said, “It was physical contact that we reported about. We never said anything about sledging. Quite a few harsh words were spoken but we didn’t report that.”
“What is more important is that we brought forward something that we thought was unacceptable. What happens beyond that, it is not in my jurisdiction to punish or award penalties. We thought this incident was bad for the game so we brought it forward. It’s up to the ICC and others to see what needs to be done,” he added.
Talking specifically about the verdict given out, the Indian skipper said, “In our society we have something called evidence and something called lack of evidence. So the verdict is mostly on those lines and it is time for us to move ahead.”
“What is however very interesting is that Jadeja was fined and as I said (previously) there’s not even one percent mistake committed from his side. So it is good for us that allegations against him were dropped based on the evidence available.
“However it is really interesting what David Boon saw/found out on the basis of which he fined 50 percent of Jadeja’s match fees,” he further added.
When further questioned if the tour was in jeopardy at any stage, thanks to this episode, the Indian captain denied it completely, saying it was the first time he had heard of such a rumour.
The intricacies of the matter will be debated long after the series is over however. But as far as Dhoni is concerned, this wasn’t personal agenda against Anderson and only that the ‘Spirit of the Game’ needs to be kept up.
India will be looking to turn around their fortunes after a heavy 266-run loss at Southampton which was England’s first Test win in 11 matches. It undid all the good work done by the team in the second Test at lord’s where they won by 95 runs.
“Taking 20 wickets is very important to win Test matches but we cannot forget that it is important to score runs as well. If you get 500-550 runs on the board, the opposition batsmen will be under pressure unless they bat well for 2-3 sessions continuously.
“We dropped a few catches in the last match and it didn’t look like we will take 20 wickets on that pitch. So we will see how the wicket (at Old Trafford) is and then we will see who our best 4-5 bowlers are and then we will decide the team composition,” he said.
Good the incident is now behind us: Cook
England skipper Alastair Cook has expressed satisfaction over the outcome of James Anderson-Ravindra Jadeja verdict and is happy that the fast bowler is now available for remaining two matches of this series.
“It’s been a really good couple of days off the field for us in terms of making sure James Anderson is available to play and the whole incident is now behind us. We can concentrate on playing cricket and we don’t have to talk about it anymore, and we can get on with playing cricket,” Cook said.
“The way both sides have played this series has been fantastic, apart from that one incident which has been blown up. I thought both sides have been very competitive and played it in the right way and in the right spirit,” he added.
England will now look to build-on from their 266-run win in the third Test at Southampton, their first in 11 matches. With the series now tied at 1-1, Cook is banking on Anderson, who was the man of the match at Rose Bowl, to deliver the “killer punch”.
“He is the best English bowler I have seen by quite considerable margins,” Cook said about Anderson.