Cricket is a huge deal for millions of people so curiosity around all aspects of it is inevitable. It’s mostly understandable too, except when it is not. There have been a lot of occasions when journalists have asked questions to cricketers that did not make a lot of sense, and here are examples of the same.

1. When a reporter asked Virat Kohli if Rohit Sharma should have been replaced by Ishaan Kishan as India lost to Pakistan in the opening match of World T20, 2021. 

The guy is in line to become the captain in the format so we don’t know what exactly the reporter was thinking. Kohli, though, didn’t let it slide and stood up for his teammate.

2. When a reporter asked MS Dhoni, “Are you going to continue playing after this tournament?”. The tournament was World T20, 2016. At that point, Dhoni had been asked this question about a thousand times, so the former captain called the reporter to sit by his side and this is what happened next.

3. When Ravindra Jadeja was asked what would India do if New Zealand won their match against Afghanistan. For context, there was absolutely nothing India could have done so it was an avoidable question. Jadeja’s answer made that abundantly clear.

4. In the same tournament, Dhoni was asked if he was satisfied with India’s 1-run win over Bangladesh. Objectively, the question made sense, but it was the tone that was off. The journalist said, “Aap kisi tarah se jeet paaye“, and Dhoni did not like that at all.

5. When Mithali Raj was asked who her favourite male cricketer is. 

Seriously?

6. When a reporter asked Kane Williamson if he would have selected MS Dhoni in the playing XI during ODI World Cup, 2019. Dhoni had done absolutely nothing to not deserve to be a part of the squad, and Kane Williamson let that be known with his answer.

7. When Rajdeep Sardesai asked Sourav Ganguly if he’d consider being the Chief Minister of Bengal. This was brought up during an event related to a book the journalist had written.

The former India skipper, when reminded about the said question, answered, “I thought this was a cricket book. This cricket book is being launched, so I can see the faces of myself, Dhoni, Dravid, Pataudi, Bedi, Gavaskar, Azharuddin, and Sachin…There is no politician here, so why such a question?”.

8. It was Rajdeep again, who asked Rahul Dravid if cricketers have become bigger than the game, mentioning that Dhoni gets to decide when he will retire. To which, Dravid said:

Don’t be critical of just Virat and Dhoni, even Ashish Nehra is getting to decide when he retires. At the core of this, they are normal guys, then suddenly they become heroes. And they become heroes thanks to people like you who keep asking them for interviews and write books about them. Who has made them too big?

9. When an English journalist asked R Ashwin if the pitch in Motera was fit enough for a Test match. Stupid might be the wrong word to use, but here’s why it was not the best question.

10. When Rohit Sharma was asked about the suspension of Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan when it had nothing to do with him. He had a simple response, “I am not ICC”.

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Better queries, please.