Former India Head Coach and player Ravi Shastri recently gave his opinion on the relationship that current crop of players share with Journalist is not good as compare to what they used to share in their playing days.
Shastri’s comment came in response to Saha’s incident where the latter alleged one of the top journalist of modern era for threatening him by saying no for an interview.
He further added that due to presence of social media it becomes difficult for current bunch of players to maintain the same relationship with journalist.
“I think it has changed. It has changed from the time we played the game. The equation we had with the journalists was far far better than the equation you see with the boys today. And I have been part of (the) dressing rooms for the last 7 years,” Shastri said at the launch of ‘It’s a Wonderful World’, a memoir by Khalid A-H Ansari, as quoted by TOI.
“I don’t blame the guys though because, the spotlight that is there on today’s players is nowhere like what it was on us,” he added.
“We had the print media; there was television (Doordarshan) that had just started. But today with the platforms that exist in the media and social media taking off the way it is, news channels, the number of news channels that cover the game, is unreal and that really is something that puts the spotlight on the players,” added Shastri.
“I feel we have tried to discuss it (with) them. To speak as much as you can to the media, but make sure that it is a proper kind of press conference where you take everyone’s questions at one go,”
“Because what happens is a lot of things are taken out of context these days and I am being honest about it, because of the competition that exists,”
“As a result of which, the player has no choice but to go into a shell, has absolutely no choice and says I rather look within, focus on the game, let my cricket do the talking and once I am done and dusted, then I can speak to whoever,” he concluded.
Shastri post coaching job of Men in Blue was involved in Legends League Cricket 2021 where he was commissioner of the event and he has stated this on different media outlets that he would like to continue his commentary stint again in some months time.
