Johannesburg, Dec 25: India captain Rohit Sharma can leave everyone in peals of laughter with his comments, while himself maintaining a poker face.

Before the press conference started here on Monday, he smiled and told everyone, "No questions on IPL. Only on Indian cricket team."

Someone pushed his luck and enquired, "it's a press meet, we can ask."

Rohit pointed to the BCCI logo on his crest to signal it's a board-organised press meet.

He knew he would be probed about his white-ball future.

Where does Rohit the batter see himself in the coming two years?

"I will play whatever cricket is there in front of me," he said in a loaded answer one can interpret the way one wants to.

The next question was more direct? "Do you seniors, you, Virat (Kohli) feel desperation to play T20 World Cup?"

"Desperation cricket khelne ke liye sabko hai (We are all desperate to play cricket). Everyone wants to do well whatever chances they get," he said.

And, then, he let everyone know what they were trying to extract from him.

"I know what you are trying to ask. You will get an answer, you will, for certain," said Rohit as he tried to suppress his grin.

On a serious note, he admitted that the World Cup final was a bitter pill to swallow for everyone in the team.

"The World Cup until the final the way we played, you expect to go an inch further. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it and that was the hard part, take that, honestly we have all these years worked hard for it, and you saw how we managed to play the first 10 games and the final," he said.

"Obviously, we didn't do certain things well in the final and that cost us the match, there were not many things we could point out that we didn't do this right or we didn't do that right," said Rohit, sounding practical in his thought process.

Just like he had said in an Instagram video, Rohit felt the love of the fans had got him back to playing cricket after the loss to Australia in the final.

"It's hard (to overcome) from a loss like that, but there's so much happening in life and there's so much cricket happening, move on from that (World Cup loss), it took time to come out from that and you got to look forward," he added.

"Honestly, I got a lot of messages from the outside world as well and that motivated me personally to get up and start doing my job again," he concluded.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Belagavi: Speaker U.T. Khader on Friday warned that members who disrupt Assembly proceedings by talking in their seats during debates will be made to sit in the House for an entire day as a disciplinary measure.

The warning came after the Question Hour, when Deputy Leader of the Opposition Arvind Bellad was permitted to initiate a discussion on the development of North Karnataka.

At this point, expelled BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal objected, stating that he had been seeking a debate for the past three days but had not been given an opportunity.

ALSO READ: IndiGo board ropes in external aviation expert for flight disruption probe

Responding to the objection, Speaker Khader said Bellad had already been granted permission and assured Yatnal that he would be allowed to speak at the next opportunity. He noted that even as a serious discussion was underway, several MLAs were speaking among themselves with their microphones on, disrupting the proceedings.

Expressing displeasure over the conduct of members, Khader likened the situation to football, where players receive red, yellow, or white cards for violations. Similarly, he said, the Assembly issues warning cards to members who disturb the House. If they fail to correct themselves despite repeated warnings, they would be required to remain seated in the Assembly hall for a full day as punishment, he stated.