Former Indian opening batter Sunil Gavaskar has given a scathing verdict of the English media, terming them as the biggest 'whinging and moaning media' in sport. Gavaskar expects the English media to keep criticising the pitches that don't suit them and that such opinions will get plenty of traction worldwide.
England's tour of India in 2021 for 4 Tests saw them play 3 out of 4 Tests on tracks that significantly assisted spin and the tourists lost them heavily. The likes of Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss criticised the pitches, but faced the same from Indian fans and experts for England's players inability to play spin.
"In about three weeks time another Test series starts with a country that has the biggest whingeing and moaning media in sport. Anything that doesn’t suit their team will be criticised and allegations will fly thick and fast," Gavaskar wrote in his latest column for Mid-day.
The 74-year-old's comments came with regards to Rohit Sharma slamming critics following the 2nd Test against South Africa in Cape Town, where the track produced excessive seam movement. Rohit believes that experts should not blame Indian pitches if they start turning from day 1 either if seam movement at the same stage don't bother them much.
"Typical of the SENA countries" - Sunil Gavaskar
Gavaskar also recalled how Australian captain Pat Cummins had blamed the Indian tracks during the Test series last year, slamming the hypocrisy of SENA countries.
"These kind of excuses that the curator got it wrong is typical of the SENA countries. When our curators make a dry pitch then it’s ‘chicanery’, as a former Australian skipper said last year after the Aussies had been walloped in the first two Test matches. So our groundsmen do it deliberately, but their groundsmen just get it wrong. It’s like before the third country umpires came in, where decisions by their umpires were excused as ‘human error’ while our umpires were cheats and ‘Delhi Butchers’ and all such derogatory headlines."
India's squad to face England is expected to be announced in the coming days.
