Ricky Ponting said it was “high and mighty” of Sunil Gavaskar to complain about poor on-field behaviour as Australia’s captain questioned his role in India’s lack of recent Test success. Gavaskar said this week Australia’s recent losses to England and New Zealand had “gladdened the hearts” of the game’s followers.
“There is not the slightest doubt that in the last decade or so the Aussies have been awesome in batting, bowling and fielding, which has taken them to the top of the cricketing ladder,” Gavaskar, who regularly highlights Australia’s poor behaviour, said. “But they have also been awful in the way they have sometimes behaved on the field much to the chagrin of the traditional fans of the game.”
Ponting, who will lead Australia in their opening World Cup game against Scotland on Wednesday, said teams that dominated for a long period did not have too many supporters and then targeted Gavaskar. “We all know the way he played his cricket, don’t we?,” Ponting said in The Australian. “If he is talking about us, what about the way India have played their cricket over the last few years?”
India won three of 12 Tests last year while Australia were successful in their ten games. “I know who I would rather be going to watch,” Ponting told the paper. “Have a look at how many Test matches they have won. He [Gavaskar] has been a big part of that, he has been a selector and he has been on the coaching committee. They might want to start to look at the way they play their own cricket rather than looking at us.”
Ponting admitted he had been reported “more than anybody” since becoming captain - he was found guilty of dissent twice in 2006 - but returned to Gavaskar and recalled his attempted walk-off at the MCG in 1980-81. “Given out lbw to Lillee, Gavaskar indicated that he had edged the ball on to his pad, and was so enraged that he wanted to forfeit the match, ordering his partner, Chauhan, to walk off with him,” the Almanack reported. India’s manager stopped Chetan Chauhan from leaving the field.
“For him to go on about behaviour, not too many captains have dragged their teams off the field, either,” Ponting said. “I don’t mind if ‘Mr Perfect’ comes out and goes on about our team, I know we are all not perfect. We are not going to keep everyone happy 100% of the time. But for some of these guys that have done it all themselves, it’s pretty high and mighty for them to say that.”
Well they both have a point. Australian players' behaviour has been quite disgraceful at times like McGrath sledging to Strauss in the Commonwealth bank series and players shoving Sharad Powar quite unceremoniously, effectively telling him to get off stage before posing with the ICC Trophy. And if Gavaskar does have some say in coaching and selection matters, then he must cop some flak for India's indifferent performances in tests last year.
I have no hard proof but I am 100% convinced that Mr Ponting is a RACIST.
I remember the hatred and arrogance on his face when he gestured furiously towards Srinath after being hit with a bouncer (as if bowling Bouncers at his greatness was not allowed). Last year's incident during the award ceremony was just another case in point.
Yes, Gavaskar has a few blemishes on his on-field discipline history but Ponting is in a different class all together.
Gavaskar has always been a joke, never taken him seriously, even though pontings behavior leaves much to be desired, he has a valid point against gavaskar, such a sore loser who was always involved in some type of sore losing, cant talk!
This coming just the day before worldcup starts means only one thing..Aus see India as a very strong contended and wanted play this mental game.
As far as his comment on Gavaskar and his involvement with Indian cricket in last few years. I am not sure if Gavaskar was any way involved in Indian cricket management in last few years. Certainly not as selector. Regarding recent success, India almost beat AUS when they last visited AUS and was only team to come out of AUS undefeated.
This coming just the day before worldcup starts means only one thing..Aus see India as a very strong contended and wanted play this mental game.
As far as his comment on Gavaskar and his involvement with Indian cricket in last few years. I am not sure if Gavaskar was any way involved in Indian cricket management in last few years. Certainly not as selector. Regarding recent success, India almost beat AUS when they last visited AUS and was only team to come out of AUS undefeated.
i agree
he could have said so many things about Gavaskar to make him look really bad, but saying how Indian team has a bad away record and bring actual statistics into it when gavaskar is not even on the selection committee makes no sense. i think you are right, just a mental battle, we are def going to play Aus in super 8s
Aussies could get whacked in a bar’ - Gavaskar Cricinfo staff
March 12, 2007
Sunil Gavaskar delivered a strong retort in what was the latest in his joust with Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting. In a scathing reaction, Gavaskar said a “hot-head guy” might actually whack the Australian cricketers if they dared replicate their on-field behaviour in a bar. :rotfl:
Last week Gavaskar called Australia’s on-field behaviour “awful” in a column for India Today magazine. Ponting felt it was “high and mighty” of Gavaskar to complain, considering “the way India have played their cricket over the last few years”.
“Some day, some other hot-head guy might actually get down and you know whack somebody who abuses him,” Gavaskar said on ESPN. He cited the example of the former Australia cricketer David Hookes, who had been fatally beaten up outside a bar. “There’s the example of the late David Hookes. Would the Australians who use that kind of language on the field, and not all of them do, in a bar and would they get away with it? Would they have a fist coming at their face or not?”
He also defended his decision to attempt a walk-off at the MCG in protest against an lbw decision in 1981, an incident Ponting alluded to. “The reason the walk off took place was simply because I was abused by the Australians,” Gavaskar said. "Let me also come back to what he [Ponting] said about the way I played my cricket and I do not know what he’s looking at.
“When he talks about the Indian team not having won matches, we are not talking about winning matches here, we are talking about behavior on the field,” he said. He drew a comparison between the Australian and West Indian sides of the 1970s and '80s.
“The West Indians were popular winners, there was an affection about the West Indians players in spite of the fact that they were beating you in three days,” he said. "They [West Indies] did not abuse the opponents. They did not have anything to say to the opponents. When they were dominating world cricket the West Indians did not resort to personal abuse on the field, they just played the game hard, they were very tough competitors but there was nothing untoward in their behaviour towards their opponents.
“West Indian players always had a smile on their face when they came in at the end of day’s play to talk with you and to commiserate when you lost, you could see that there was no arrogance there.** Cricket lovers all over the world wanted the West Indies teams to get back on their feet and start winning again.**”*
Gavaskar is right. It is not news that Indian team has more or less sucked in recent years performance wise. But this issue is not about team performance but on-field discipline , .
**SYDNEY: Australian great Allan Border said his 20-year friendship with Sunil Gavaskar was at a breaking point after the Indian legend’s remarks about the late David Hookes in the acrimonious spat with Ricky Ponting. In a rejoinder to Ponting’s counter-attack, Gavaskar had said a “hot head guy” might actually whack the Australian cricketers if they dared replicate their on-field behaviour in a bar. The former India captain cited the example of late Australian player David Hookes, who had been fatally beaten up outside a bar.
Backing Ponting in the verbal duel, Border said Gavaskar’s reference of Hookes was “inappropriate and uncalled for” and the Indian great “has a mistaken cultural belief in the way Australia plays the game.”
“I consider Sunny a friend, but what he said about David Hookes and the behaviour of Australian cricketers was totally uncalled for. What Sunny said on television was totally inappropriate,” the former Aussie captain told The Australian newspaper.
Border said Hookes was a fantastic cricketer, husband, family man and a mate. ‘’For him (Gavaskar) to link David’s death to players allegedly misbehaving on a cricket field is plain wrong. “Where Australia may be seen to be playing the game hard and tough could be misconstrued on the subcontinent. Similarly, the way India plays the game at times may not be to the liking of every Australian. Cricket is a global sport in which different cultures lock horns out in the middle, only the nuances of the game may vary from country to country.”
“While a cricketer on the subcontinent or the West Indies may find an Australian bowler’s remark to a particular batsman of ‘you lucky *******’ offensive, to players in other teams it’s not. “Sunny has missed the point here badly. He’s clearly overlooked the fact there are different cultures at work. I think he is drawing a long bow blaming our cricketers for misbehaving. While I do admit words are said out in the middle, we play the game hard, but fair,” said Border.
Former Aussie player Darren Lehmann also backed Border saying that Gavaskar’s remarks has hurt David Hookes’ family and friends and tarnish the late cricketer’s memory. “A man of Gavaskar’s stature in the game of cricket should know better. His outburst about David Hookes was totally out of order and in bad taste. As to what he said about the way Australia goes about playing the game, he’s overlooked the fact there are officials who are empowered to take action if someone is out of order,” Lehmann said.
**“I do regret it … on the breakfast show I do with ESPN, I read out a statement regretting what I had said,” Gavaskar told a Melbourne radio station on Tuesday.
“On live television and radio, sometimes you respond on the spur of the moment with a remark that can cause hurt and pain to others. I realise and I accept that what I said was uncalled for and inappropriate. Having said that, I hope they (Hookes’ family and friends) have the bigness of heart to forgive me for what I said about David Hookes.” …
It’s good thing that Gavaskar apologized for late David Hookes and his sincere words of apology are enough to close this matter.
However, rest what he said is 100% truth. Australians have worst on-field behaviour, they will be blamed most if people will stop calling Cricket a gentleman’s game.
but ponting is langoor as well