Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott hosted the Indian and Australian teams for afternoon tea at his official residence on Thursday to mark the beginning of the New Year.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni – who retired from Test cricket after the third match – was not present at the tea party.
Injecting some humour into the tense Test series marked by aggressive confrontations, Abbott said that his own main strength as a cricketer was sledging.
Speaking to the teams at Kirribilli House, his official residence, Abbott talked about his time as a cricketer when he was a student at Oxford University. Abbott was the captain of Oxford’s Middle Common Room team of the Queen’s College — mainly because he could perform a mean sledge, he joked.
“I couldn’t bat, I couldn’t bowl, I couldn’t field, but I could sledge, and I think I held my place in the team on this basis, and I promise there’ll be none of that today,†he said.
Abbott, however, did come up with some cricketing insight of his own, in the context of Australia’s late declaration on the final day of the Melbourne Test, which ended in a draw. He said the decision by Australian captain Steven Smith to delay the declaration was the correct one.
“When I told people last night that I was lucky enough to be hosting the Australian and the Indian cricket teams here today, the only question that they assailed me with was ‘What did you think of the declaration?’,†Abbott said.
“My initial thought was it was none of my business. My further thought was that Steven did absolutely his duty, because it is his duty to put Australia in the strongest possible position because, as India’s batsmen have repeatedly demonstrated this summer, you can never take India for granted.â€