Australia spinner Nathan Lyon did not shy away from expressing his disappointment at being left out of the playing XI for the second Ashes Test against England, stating in a public interview that he felt “absolutely filthy” on being dropped.
Reflecting on Lyon’s statements, legendary Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin – his long-time rival on the field – stated that Indian players would not have the freedom to express themselves in a similar way. Ashwin said that Indian players would not be respected in the same way as an overseas player if they express their true emotions.
“Nathan Lyon is lucky that he is from a team who won’t change their emotions. He got a medium to express, and he did. But he won’t be considered wrong and he’ll still be considered for the next Test match,” Ashwin said, speaking on his Hindi YouTube channel ‘Ash ki Baat’.
“People have emotions, and they will do just that. However, I cannot express my emotions, because if I do, I will lose out, and only my harm will be caused. So why will I do that? However, I really respect Nathan Lyon; he let his emotions out. Good on him,” he added.
“We, as Indian cricketers, are allowed to express our opinion. No one is stopping us. But what is collateral damage? Your expression and emotion are not given as much respect because you will be stamped as a person of a certain character for doing that. I hope this will change with the passage of time, and it should,” he said.
Ashwin provided an example to explain his point on the culture in India, stating that star India batter Abhishek Sharma would not be able to declare himself as the ‘Universe Boss’ quite as freely as Chris Gayle could.
“Let’s take Chris Gayle as an example. He announced himself as the ‘Universe Boss’. We all accepted it, didn’t we?” said Ashwin.
“Suppose tomorrow, Abhishek Sharma comes to the press conference, wears a chain around his neck and says ‘Universe Boss is here, man’, will we accept him? Why not? Because there is a conditioning in our brains that we don’t like to credit someone else. I hope that changes.
“We accept others, but we don’t accept our own,” Ashwin further stated.
“There is collateral damage. What is collateral damage? It’s when your expression is not given the respect it deserves. You will be stamped as a person of a certain character. But I’m guessing that will change over time. I’m hoping it will change and it should,” he added.
Coming back to Australia, they were able to comfortably win the second Ashes Test despite leaving out Nathan Lyon and missing star pacers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
In fact, Lyon’s replacement, pace-bowling all-rounder Michael Neser, went on to take a five-wicket haul in the second innings.