Former Australian captain Dean Jones reacted to Michael Clarke's claims of the Australian team sucking-up to Virat Kohli to save Indian Premier League contracts. Jones stood against Clarke's words and said the Australian team doesn't want to provoke Kohli and MS Dhoni as both of them like confrontation.
Dean Jones said Australia went quiet for Viv Richards and Javed Miandad because they didn't want to upset the bear and the same is with Kohli or Dhoni in recent times.
"I will tell you the reason why they went quiet on Virat. Because we went quiet when Viv Richards came out to bat. We went quiet on Javed Miandad, on Martin Crowe. And there is a reason behind that -- You don't upset the bear, you don't upset Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni because this is what they like - a confrontation," Dean Jones said during an interaction on Sportscreen YouTube page.
"Don't give them any oxygen. But I find this reason about not upsetting Virat because of IPL contracts a bit rubbish. Is Virat going to stop anyone from playing? That is down to the coaches and managers."
Jones said he finds Clarke's claim of Australia not upsetting Kohli because of big IPL contracts rubbish.
Earlier, Cummins also responded to Clarke's claim and explained that the Aussie team were trying to play less aggressive cricket after the ball-tampering scandal. After David Warner and Steve Smith, the Australian team were facing media scrutiny and were portrayed in a negative way.
"I think probably a bigger factor was six months before leading into that Indian series the media and everyone commentating on the Aussie cricket team were pretty clear in their direction in the way they wanted the Aussies team to go and that was playing a little bit less aggressively out on the field," Cummins told the BBC.
"I'd say that would have been a bigger factor than trying to win or lose friends out on the cricket field. But you never know, that might have been a factor for some players" said Cummins.
