Sydney, Feb 24: Stung by widespread reports of a rift within the Indian team in Australia, the beleaguered side's media manager today urged the media to move ahead and focus on the positives.
Media manager G S Walia, however, distanced himself from BCCI President N Srinivasan's comment that the media reports were “exaggerated”, saying he had never blamed the media for the situation.
“Let's not analyse the same situation, why this was generated, how it came to this. Let us forget it and be positive for the future,” he said after the reporters asked about the dressing room atmosphere in the wake of BCCI's assertion that all was well within the unit.
While BCCI had claimed that the team unity was alright and reports of dissension was media's creation, based on what it has gathered from the media manager Walia. Walia himself wasn't too keen to blame the media for the mess.
“I am not blaming the media. At a distance, if the president has said it, it may be his views. But I have never said it. I have never blamed the media,” clarified Walia.
On different opinions conveyed by BCCI, Walia said it could be a matter of communication gap. He also said he had never conveyed to BCCI that media reports were exaggerated and players were misquoted.
BCCI's reaction had come in the wake of media reporting that Dhoni and two seniors—Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir—were not on the same page.
A section of the media reported that the three senior cricketers had a meeting yesterday and an attempt was made to resolve the differences. But Walia denied any meeting ever took place.
“All we had was the meeting among all 17 on the day of the match, after the game, after the press conference. When I went back to that place, I conveyed it to everyone. Everybody said, ‘sir we don't have any differences'. I have been along with them for 75 days. But there shouldn't be a chance given to anybody, not only to you but anybody else to feel there is a communication gap. I have conveyed that to the players in simple terms,” said Walia.
Meanwhile, Irfan Pathan also claimed that there are no differences in the team.
“Everyone is working hard. There is no difference of opinion in the team. I have been hearing things, but it's nothing like that. Things are pretty good. It's a matter of winning big games. Once we start winning the big games, these things are going to vanish,” said Pathan.
