Delhi: It is widely written in the books of old cricketers that during foreign tours, they came to watch practice and tests and used to mingle a lot with the NRIs living there. In search of home-cooked food, he was even ready to go to their homes for dinner if invited. This also ‘saved money’ which was later used for shopping. Today, nothing in this statement is true and now the situation has come to such a pass that even before the Test being played in the floodlights of Adelaide Oval, Team India itself said that the entry of spectators in the practice session should be stopped.
Cricket Australia, albeit reluctantly, agreed to Team India’s request and in the remaining three Tests of the series, fans will not be able to see Team India practice in all but two of the Tests except Melbourne. Whereas for this series, Cricket Australia created a separate ‘fan zone’ in the stadium for the fans of Team India so that they can cheer for Team India from there, opened the gates for the practice session and here Team India said That stop their entry in the practice session.
What actually happened was that during a practice session of Team India before the start of the Day-Night Test in Adelaide, more than 5000 spectators came to the stadium and the report is that instead of silently watching their ‘hero’ cricketers play, these The fans made a lot of noise, commented on the cricketers, booed at the slightest lack of play and harassed cricketers who came near them by requesting selfies. Cricketers were not able to concentrate fully on practice. Result- Entry of fans closed in the open practice session for the remaining Australian tour of India. This ban will be visible before the upcoming Brisbane and Sydney Tests because there the practice is in the stadium and the gates can be closed but in Melbourne, the practice is done in the open outside the stadium.
Something similar happened in the nets in Brisbane during the 2012 tour. Then Praveen Kumar and Rohit Sharma were surrounded by some drunk fans and were harassing them. Coincidentally, an Indian journalist was also present there and he helped the cricketers to leave and himself engaged the fans in conversation.
There are also reports that this time the fans who had actually come to watch the game at Adelaide Oval were 100 meters away but some outsiders were excitedly shouting the names of Kohli and Sharma and making comments, that is why Team India conducted open practice. The session was banned.
However, Cricket Australia itself had given publicity to similar open sessions in Brisbane and Sydney on social media so that Indian players could prepare amidst the carnival atmosphere on the ground, but this effort backfired and hence Cricket Australia also changed its policy. Practice at MCG is always open as the outdoor nets are outside the ground at Yarra Park.
The decision to open these practice sessions for fans from the Adelaide Test was taken by Cricket Australia after long discussions with the BCCI, but if it keeps diverting attention from the practice itself, then what is the use of it?