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A Sunny Controversy Down Under
For a generation of cricketers, commentators and the paying public, Indian cricket began and ended with some glorious exceptions with Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, the original Little Master. Renowned for his perfect timing in those heady days when he bore the burden of Indian cricket, Atlas-like, almost single-handedly, Gavaskar has proved that his timing for stoking a controversy is as legendary as his batting prowess. But to beg the question, were his rather acerbic comments on the mighty Australians, really worth the heat and dust it has raised?
In his exclusive column for India Today, Gavaskar wrote that the Australians were unpopular winners, unlike the West Indies team of the eighties, because of their sledging and unsportsmanlike ways. A predatory media, ever on the prowl for some juicy tidbits, picked on his nitpicking on the Australians, and adding its own spin to it, souped up a controversy to the already hyped Caribbean world cup.
The Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, never known to measure his words like his strokes, hit back in a way that ironically proved the truth in Gavaskar's utterances. The point Gavaskar was trying to make was that the Australians are arrogant, and therefore unpopular. Ponting's angry retort brought to the fore the essential arrogance in him and his team. He spoke demeaningly about the Indian cricket team's capacity to win matches, about Gavaskar's own brand of batting, and added his own spin to the effect that winners are generally unpopular in sport.
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But Gavaskar was not talking about the Indian cricket team. As for the comment on his style of batting, is there anything to prove for one who was the first to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, and who holds the record for the highest number of centuries in Tests? As for his supposedly slow style of batting, Ponting needs to brush up on his history. For almost the entire part of his career, Gavaskar was burdened with being the sole bulwark of the Indian team, and so had to play his part in the team, accordingly. No, he was not Mr Perfect, but who is? But how does all this concern the essential point of the argument that sledging is integral to the Australian brand of cricket.
Gavaskar was only making the point that the great West Indies team of the eighties, won matches with clinical efficiency like the Australian team of today, but unlike them, never brought the game to disrepute and intimidated their opponents by indulging in sledging, name calling and worse.
Ponting in fact let the cat out of the bag by saying that of late, his team was "reasonable" in its behaviour. The point is: When does sledging or bad behaviour become "reasonable"? The fact is, Ponting is a great act in letting his bat talk, but not in talking his talk.
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