Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar rubbished Australian media’s bias towards its cricket team, calling it an “extension of team’s support staff”, while speaking to NDTV on Wednesday.
After the the ill-tempered Bengaluru Test, which India won by 75 runs, Australian newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, alleged that Kumble ‘stormed into the umpires room mid-innings’ while India skipper Kohli ‘struck an Australian official with an orange Gatorade bottle’, and then swore and made a threatening gestures towards the players.
“We should not bother too much about the Australian media and what they write as they are an extension of their cricket team’s support staff. The focus now should shift to cricket from off-the-field issues,” Gavaskar said.
The batting legend suggested that the DRS issue involving Australia captain Steve Smith was blown out of proportion by the media, “Nobody spoke anything in between about it but the media, otherwise there was nothing between them [Kohli and Smith]. It is time to look at cricket now. A lot of good cricket that was played in the first two Tests has been swept away because of this one incident,” Gavaskar added.
The 67-year-old, much like former Australia captain Ian Chappell a day ago, called for the International Cricket Council to regulate on-field chatter, “There should be aggression but only in terms of cricket, not otherwise. Young players tend to misunderstand while expressing aggression and tend to do it with their mouths instead of the bat and ball,” he said.
“Talking on the field has to be brought down and the ICC has to take a tough stand on it,” Gavaskar added.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!