Former Indian skipper and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for their indifferent behavior and rules for different players in the Indian side. Not just this, but Gavaskar also took a dig at the team management by giving an example of T Natarajan and Virat Kohli as he pointed out the difference in the treatment.
In his latest column on Sportstar, Sunil Gavaskar slammed BCCI for keeping T Natarajan in the Test squad and refraining him from meeting his new-born daughter for the first time while the Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been given paternity leave and will be missing the last three Test games against Australia.
For the unversed, T Natarajan became a father during IPL 2020 while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad and he is yet to see his new-born daughter as he traveled straight to the UAE for the ongoing series against Australia. While Virat Kohli left for India to be there with his wife during the birth of his child. He wrote:
“Another player who will wonder about the rules, but, of course, can’t make any noise about it as he is a newcomer. It is T. Natarajan. The left-arm yorker specialist who made an impressive debut in the T20 and had Hardik Pandya gallantly offering to share the man of the T20 series prize with him had become a father for the first time even as the IPL playoffs were going on.”
He added:
“He had become a father for the first time even as the IPL playoffs were going on. He was asked to stay on for the (Australia) Test series but not as a part of the team but as a net bowler. Imagine that. A match winner, albeit in another format, being asked to be a net bowler. He will thus return home only after the series ends in the third week of January and get to see his daughter for the first time then. And there is the captain (Virat Kohli) going back after the first Test for the birth of his first child,”
Furthermore, Sunil Gavaskar also cited the example of Ravichandran Ashwin and claimed that he has suffered a lot however not for his bowling ability but for speaking his mind. He wrote:
“For far too long Ashwin has suffered not for his bowling ability of which only the churlish will have doubts, but for his forthrightness and speaking his mind at meetings where most others just nod even if they don’t agree. If Ashwin doesn’t take heaps of wickets in one game, he is invariably sidelined for the next one. That does not happen to established batsmen though,”
He concluded:
“That’s Indian cricket. Different rules for different people. If you don’t believe me ask Ravi Ashwin and T. Natarajan.”
