During the Ashes Test series, crowds in England have only been seen celebrating when England performed well so far. Former England cricketers-turned-commentators also continued to back the hosts to win despite Australia having the upperhand during the first two Tests, winning the contests by two wickets and 43 runs, respectively as well. And, in his Mid-Day column, Sunil Gavaskar criticized this attitude.
He wrote: “It’s only natural that the crowds will support their own team and won’t cheer the opponents, but to suggest that it happens only in India is ridiculous. This is not an Indian phenomena, but happens in every country where home crowds keep silent when a boundary is hit against their bowlers or their batters get out.”
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The legendary batter further added: “Nowhere has it been more apparent than at the current Ashes series. What bugs is the condescending way, overseas commentators, when they come to India, keep saying how quiet the Indian crowd at the ground is when an Indian batter gets out or when an Indian bowler is hit for a boundary. Love how the English convince themselves they are in a good position because of an epic and historic innings played 4 years ago.”
Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar also slammed the English media for improperly handling Jonny Bairstow’s controversial dismissal. The veteran also added that England captain Ben Stokes’ century was a much bigger topic of discussion than the ‘spirit of cricket’ debate as well. Notably, Stokes smashed a stunning 155 off 214 balls to keep England in the game on the final day of the second Ashes Test.
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Sunil Gavaskar concluded: “Typically, while the cricketing world is busy discussing the rights and wrongs of the Jonny Bairstow stumping in the second Test match at Lord’s, the really important cricketing aspect of Ben Stokes’s marvelous innings has receded into the background. It’s a great example of how little things so often overshadow the more important happenings. This has been the usual diversionary tactic used by the overseas media for years where a small insignificant incident is made to cover up for a bigger failure of the team.”
