For those who missed it: Right after the English team festooned themselves in champagne and confetti, Star Cricket cut to a nice little chat from Bhogle/Gavaskar and Shastri. Bhogle begins by noting that Tiger Pataudi, whom the series is partially named after, did not get to give his trophy. He said it as an aside, and moved on quickly to the main question: Did anyone really think 4-0 was on the cards? Does it accurately reflect the difference between the teams?
Gavaskar and Shastri, always ready to notice the slightest breach of protocol as evidence of a giant conspiracy to defame India’s good name, begin the rant. First, Gavaskar says, it was ridiculous to see a legend like Pataudi treated in such a way. If you’re going to have a series trophy, there should be one series trophy. Why have an nPower trophy and a Pataudi trophy? At this point, we’re already way into the weeds of a very, very silly debate, given that the Indian cricket team has just done more to defame good Pataudi’s name than anything the presentation ceremony may have done.
But then, the rant takes an inspired turn: You know, people always say the Indians have commercialized cricket, Gavaskar continues. They complain about all the things the IPL commentators say — DLF maximums and what not — but look at Stuart Broad. When he went to pick up his medal, he was wearing the nPower cricket cap, not the English one. Now, realizing he’s about to enter stormy waters, given his own recent dalliance with sponsors and conflicts of interest, Gavaskar steps back and says, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Sponsors are good; they pay for things; if they want us to say things they way they want, we should respect that. But the double standards are just ridiculous.
Then, literally for 3 seconds, Harsha Bhogle just stared at the screen, paused, and said, “O.K. On the cricket itself…” Why was Gavaskar’s rant inappropriate? 1) I’m sick of elaborate presentation ceremonies. They usually detract attention from the cricketers themselves and have become an elaborate advertisement for authorities/politicians/etc. This one was no different, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. Pataudi should just be glad the series was named after him. 2) This is after a 4-0 drubbing. Why try to salvage your pride by making silly symbolic protests? 3) Why bring up the IPL or sponsorship or “double standards” at all? What was Gavaskar’s point — that money rules us all, but only the Indians are honest enough to admit it? Is that really a point to make now?
Feel free to add the many reasons the rant was inappropriate in the comments section.
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The point that you have left unsaid is whether Gavaskar would have ranted out about such trivialities had Dhoni received those 2 trophies. Would he have given a damn if Raina or someone had worn a sponsor’s cap?
If the honest answer is no, then that really is double standards for you!
sunnygavaskar is a cunt who avaeraged 60odd against the mightywest indies squad, and about 30odd against the proper weindies atttack that began post 1978. letskeep that mofo out of any sane cricketing discussion, especially those on ‘double standards’.
Glad someone else picked up on this – I am a brit living abroad and have been forced to listen to this pair for the whole series. They are paranoid to the point of delusion and the comment about Broad’s cap being the same as commercialisation of cricket in India was incredible, I literally could not believe that these 2 are allowed on TV, then you hear that there is no choice, the BCCI enforce it and pay them (double standards indeed).
Ganguly is very good but is fighting against the tide most of the time
I could not believe my ears when he brought up that silly topic of Broad’s cap. I mean, in that mood of celebration no one gives a shit as to what cap one is wearing. After outlook went after these two guys accusing them to be behaving like spokesmen for BCCI, they seem to be on look out for whatever little “double standards” others engage in, so they can point fingers (“see! they too are like us, money more important than cricket”).
I completely agree with this post. The comments from Ravi and Sunny were completely out of tune with what the discussion should have been about, England’s excellent performance, and some soul searching for India. Instead, what we got were some petty comments that were completely silly! Both sounded more like (poor) BCCI spokesmen rather than cricket commentators. Bhogle was rightly baffled by the comments, and tried to steer the conversation back by simply saying ‘any comments on the cricket?’
There comments are totally absurd as the Trophy is named after Sr. Pataudi who played for both India & England and not Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. And who couldn’t have come to present it as he has been dead for a long time.
And I dont know if there is any protocol of family members giving out the trophy. In which case they might be asking Saif Ali Khan to do the honours in a few years time.
Thankfully I didn’t watch that part. I’m completely fed up with all the former cricketers & experts being ‘outraged’ by something or the other that some other team does. News channels don’t help matters by giving them plenty of air time. This is not the first time that Gavaskar had spoken about IPL, commercialization & double standards. He had made a similar (read exact same) rant earlier on in the series. He had even spoken about the cap before.
They’re just trying to distract us from the dismal performance & any blame that might be placed on the IPL.
They were neutral at the beginning of the series, but the onslaught from vaughan, boycott & botham must have been too difficult to swallow. I remember the morning after the vaughan-vvs controversy, Sunny went from using 3rd person ( the indians) to 1st person ( we ) while describing what the team must do.
[…] so much so that it leads them to a blind defense of the BCCI and its overlords. (Related e.g., Sunil Gavaskar’s recent tantrum about Stuart Broad wearing a sponsor’s cap at a presentation ceremony and what it said about […]
Its unbelievable that so called legend of indian cricket would do so. there are much other topics tp discuss and wasting time on broads cap is just giving rise to new controversy. It seems cricket commentrtators are turning to bollywood movie marketers
Really good observation