The legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar will not able to hand over the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is named after him and former Australia cricketer Allan Border, to the Indian skipper Virat Kohli next week.
Either Border or Gavaskar, and sometimes both, have been present to hand over the trophy to the winning skipper between India and Australia after Test series over the years, but that is unlikely to be the case after the fourth and final Test in Sydney, starting Thursday. India has already taken an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-Test series, confirming that they will retain the trophy they won at home in 2017.
While Border will be handing over the trophy, Gavaskar is set to miss out, as per the reports of India Today, because he hasn’t received an invitation from Cricket Australia.
ALSO READ: Sunil Gavaskar And Kapil Dev Praised Srinivasan
Talking about the invitation, Gavaskar said, “I was sent a letter by Cricket Australia’s [former] chief executive James Sutherland in May asking about my availability to present the Border-Gavaskar trophy and I would have been happy to go. But he stepped down [in October] and there has been no further contact.”
However, Cricket Australia’s head of communications Tim Whittaker told the Australian Associated Press that the board had sent two emails to Gavaskar inviting him to Sydney but had received “no reply to either”.
Cricket Australia’s top management has witnessed a dramatic change in recent times in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal in March. Amid the fallout from the fiasco, former chairman David Peever had to quite from his job. Australian cricket’s embattled governing body named Earl Eddings to lead the organization out of a crisis in November.
Former skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were earlier banned for 12 months, while batsman Cameron Bancroft just finished serving his nine-month suspension, over their roles in the incident. Head coach Darren Lehmann also resigned from his job after the scandal broke. A Cricket Australia commissioned report found an “arrogant” and “controlling” culture within the organization contributed to players cheating in the pursuit of victory.
ALSO READ: Hardik Pandya Prefered Ranji Trophy Over India ‘A’
The Indian team won the first Test in Adelaide narrowly before being humbled by the hosts in Perth. However, India fought back well to claim the Boxing Day Test by 131 runs last week to take a 2-1 lead. Talking about the same, Gavaskar said, “I am happy that the Border-Gavaskar trophy is staying in India and very happy with the way the team has played.”
In 1996, the Test series between India and Australia was first named after Border-Gavaskar trophy. The legendary cricketers were the first two batsmen to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket.
