On the 16th of March Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka at Colombo which was virtually the semi final of the Nidahas Trophy. Unfortunately the great victory lost its sheen somewhat as some Bangladeshi cricketers led by the skipper Shakib Al Hasan reacted to a decision by the umpires at the far end of the match in a manner unbecoming of a professional international sporting outfit.Sunil Gavaskars holier than thou attitude
Sunil Gavaskar was not always an epitome of sportsmanship
Syed Mehdi Momin
On the 16th of March Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka at Colombo which was virtually the semi final of the Nidahas Trophy. Unfortunately the great victory lost its sheen somewhat as some Bangladeshi cricketers led by the skipper Shakib Al Hasan reacted to a decision by the umpires at the far end of the match in a manner unbecoming of a professional international sporting outfit.
As a long time fan of the great game (this writer admits that he is a cricket tragic) I cant condone Shakibs gesture of calling back the two batsmen. If indeed he persisted Bangladesh would be forced to forfeit the match, an outcome no cricket fan could have wanted. Shakib being the captain should have known that in cricket you cant protest the umpires decision by calling your players back.
The all rounder himself admitted as much and was fined 25 per cent of his match fee. However what got my ire was the reaction of the great former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar. The man was not really an epitome of sportsmanship and for him to lambast the Bangladeshi captain for his lack of sporting spirit is a pill quite difficult to swallow.
Well let us recall some rather unsavoury aspects of Gavaskars career. However before that let me say that as a player Gavaskar was one of the finest in the world. His records speak for themselves. He is in my opinion, whatever its worth, is among the top opening batmen the world has ever seen.
It was the second week of February, 1981. Gavaskar was having a rather miserable series against the Australians on the latters home turf. In the third Test at Melbourne he finally found his form and played solidly to reach 70 and looked set for a ton. That is when the great fast bowler Dennis Lillee delivered a low-shooting off-cutter that trapped him in front of the stumps. Umpire Rex Whitehead had no hesitation in raising his finger. However the indignant Gavaskar refused to accept the umpires decision, stood his ground and later took his opening partner Chetan Chauhan along with him out of the field. Only the intervention of the team manager Wing Commander Shahid Ali Khan Durrani persuaded Chauhan to go back and somehow the manager and the team physio Ali Irani managed to calm Gavaskar down. Sunil Gavaskar, after years would reflect that there has never been an unhappier incident in my career. I leave it to the readers to decide how exemplary Gavskars sporting spirit was on that day.
In 1976 India was playing in the West Indies. Sunil Gavaskar was undoubtedly Indias best batsman and he played very well in the series. However India as a team came off second best and lost the highly competitive series. Gavaskar had some rather harsh things to say about West Indian spectators in his book Sunny Days which came out soon after the series.
I quote To call the crowd a crowd in Jamaica is a misnomer. It should be called a mob. Their partisan attitude was even more evident when they did not applaud any shots we played. They were stamping their legs, clapping and jumping with joy. The only word I can think of to describe the behaviour of the crowd is barbarian. The spectators, to put it mildly, were positively inhuman. To put it mildly, Mr. Gavaskar? Dont think so. To accuse a large number of people inhuman is not mild by any stretch of the imagination.
Later on in the book in a remark nothing short of racist he asked that the West Indian people should go back to jungle and swing from trees. These days many have suffered much more for saying much less offensive stuff.
A year back in from the series in the West Indies 1975 Sunil Gavaskar was playing for India against the hosts England in the inaugural match of the first ever cricket World Cup. Responding to the huge English total of 335, Gavaskar adopted a strange approach. At that time the matches were played 60 overs a side. Despite much pleading from his skipper and teammates and the crowd Gavaskar plodded around in his own merry way. He played throughout the innings and scored just 36 of 179 balls. If any player does something similar now, it is safe to say that he would be banned forever.
Gavaskars captain Srinivas Venkataraghavan said at the time It left a very, very bad taste. He let the team down, the spectators down, the spirit of the game down... Former Test player Ted Dexter was furious: Nothing short of a vote of censure by the ICC would have satisfied me if I had paid good money through the turnstiles only to be short-changed by such a performance. Great sportsmanship Gavaskar?
There are allegations that Gavaskar was a very selfish player who coveted his records above everything. There were numerous occasions when Gavaskar did not declare as a captain when he had a personal milestone in sight. In a Test match against England at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata India batted for four days before declaring, making the match meaningless. And when the passionate Eden Gardens crowd protested a petulant Gavaskar responded by saying that he would never play any match in future in Kolkata.
During his playing days the Mumbai maestro not only had arguments with opposition playershe spoke out publicly against great Indians legends like Bishan Singh Bedi, Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev and others. There are allegations that Gavaskar always favoured Marathi players at the expense of players from other regions, particularly Bengal and Karnataka. He seemed to bear a grudge against the Bengal captain Dilip Doshi who was Indias best left arm spinner after Bishan Bedi. R Sriman, cricket journalist wrote in The Times of India: Doshi did not enjoy the confidence of his skipper, who almost humiliated him by the manner in which he handled him. Doshi did not get the field he wantedhe was almost a mental wreck and thoroughly demoralised.
After his playing days were over Gavaskar became a regular in the commentary box.
Sunil Gavaskars dual role as the official voice of the BCCI and contracted commentator continues to invite flak. A staggering annual fee of Rs. 3.6 crore paid to him by the board to toe BCCIs line, an accusation levied by experts as well as former players, who term it as unethical to be biased as a commentator.
Well if you are hired by the board, how can you speak against your employers? It is difficult to stay unbiased.
The writer is a journalist working for The Independent
