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He’s stealing my moves, cricket chief says after captain’s controversial interview
PHOTO: SAM MCGHEE
HAAT-E-HARI CORRESPONDENT
A recent TV interview by a current captain of a certain international cricket team has taken a drama-addicted fanbase by storm, and the chief of that particular country’s cricket board is insecure because he suspects the interview was a clear sign of the captain’s plan to take over his job.
The interview was aired just before a Major International Tournament. The captain smiled maniacally through the chat with a local journalist, and apparently said everything possible in each answer.
It was a Schrodinger’s interview of sorts: depending on which point you happened to stumble upon the interview, the captain would be saying one thing, and then the opposite at another point.
Also, it is worth mentioning here that this correspondent may not be totally aware of what exactly the Schrodinger’s cat thing entails.
Anyway, back to the cricket chief and the cricket captain. The chief was fuming after the interview aired.
“I thought only I get to do these things,” he said yesterday in another TV interview, albeit one that didn’t quite set the world alight like the captain’s one.
“First of all, TV interviews are my thing, everyone knows that. Yes, he may be younger and he has actually played cricket, and actually knows cricket, but I am the original when it comes to saying whatever comes to my mind when a TV camera is pointed at me,” said cricket chief, who we are not naming because there has been trouble in the past, and because none of this is actually true (#disclaimer).
“Think about the things he said. When asked about things that none of us owned up to, he talked about them freely as if all of it was common knowledge, then he ended with ‘if that has actually happened’! That’s brilliant! The captain gets to have his say on this topic – in this instance the issue of another cricketer wanting to opt out of the Major International Tournament after I called him and said he should miss the first match – but the captain can also say that he actually has no knowledge of the issue just by saying, ‘if such a thing happened’.
“You know who came up with that? Me! Hi, I was the problem, it was me!”
Then the cricket chief controlled himself. Or as much as that is possible.
“Then he went on to say everything under the sun, quoting other people selectively, another of my moves. The captain then contradicted himself, saying that it was not right for his predecessor to quit the captaincy mere months before the Major International Tournament, but then himself admitting that he tried to resign 10 days before the team left for the tournament. That is classic me! Remember how I said I respect the players, then went on to disrespect them in the next breath? I do this deliberately to make myself more compelling, like a car crash, to the viewer.”
The cricket chief said what took the cake was the captain’s evident disrespect for a fellow player. “He basically called his longtime teammate, one-time friend, recent enemy a child! And he was talking about a peer. Even I, a person above all of these players, would have thought twice about saying that, and he did that with a psychotic smile on his face. That has me convinced that the captain is gunning for my job after he retires. He has all the attributes.”
When asked whether the captain will get away with any of this, cricket chief said, “I’m not going to do anything. What if that angers him and he gives an interview about me?”
“First of all, TV interviews are my thing, everyone knows that. Yes, he may be younger and he has actually played cricket, and actually knows cricket, but I am the original when it comes to saying whatever comes to my mind when a TV camera is pointed at me.”