New Delhi, May 9: Winning or losing is part of the game. No team wins for ever, nor the vice versa.
But a team, its management and its owners need to handle defeats, pressure and tough phases with maturity. If at all there is any temper or animated chat follows a loss, that should not be in public.
On Wednesday night in Hyderabad, the post-match animated chat between the vanquished Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) team's owner Sanjiv Goenka with a subdued skipper K L Rahul, certainly did not please cricket fans, former players and experts.
The LSG team entered Wednesday’s encounter against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in hopes of breaking into the top four of the points table, a bid which was slammed shut by the orange army with conviction.
After the game, a clip circulated on social media in which LSG owner Goenka was seen having an animated chat with captain Rahul that left the netizens fuming.
Experts shared their take on the scene, saying such conversations should happen behind closed doors.
"You always feel these conversations should be happening behind closed doors. There are so many cameras around the stadium and they miss nothing. You know KL Rahul is now gonna go to press conferences and other things and potentially explain what's been discussed here," an expert said on Jio Cinema.
It has been a tough few day for the 32-year-old as Wednesday night's incident follows days after the right-handed wicketkeeper batter was left out of the squad that will travel to the West Indies and USA for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
In recent days, Rahul has been criticised for his strike rate being too slow for T20’s and the struggles continued as the Lucknow captain managed to score 29 runs off 33 deliveries with a strike rate of 87.88.
LSG started the game on the back-foot and spent the majority of the game trying to get back in. A solid 99-run partnership between Nicholas Pooran (48* off 26 deliveries) and Ayush Badoni (55* off 30 deliveries) rescued the innings for Lucknow as they posted 165/4.
Sunrisers, in response, chased down the target in just 9.4 overs. Travis Head (89* off 30 deliveries) and Abhishek Sharma (75* off 28 deliveries) continued the absolute carnage as they sealed a 10-wicket to go third in the points table.
Well, this is not the last time that a team lost badly to its opponents. There will be similar results in future too.
But what should be taken care of is the fact that the owners, team management and even the fans must never humiliate or blame the players or the captain for the result. The fact remains, no player or captain, ever plays a match to lose it. (With IANS support)
