Sunil Gavaskar: When it comes to the BCCI and Indian cricket, the knives have to be out

The kowtowing ended long ago, and that is what irks the old powers. It eats at them that they need the BCCI and Indian cricket to keep their finances in good shape.

Adaptability: “Have you ever heard an Indian player or a former player complain about the trampoline bounce of some surfaces or the grazing area for cattle masquerading as a Test match pitch in these countries?,” asks the author. | Photo Credit: K MURALI KUMAR

Remember the words: “This is Australia, this is Perth. I’m setting ourselves up for a really good pace, good bounce, good carry.” These are the words of the head curator of the Western Australia Cricket Association. Fair enough. But next time there is a tour by Australia and England to India, and their former players and media start complaining about Indian pitches, every Indian curator should turn around and say, “This is India, this is Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, wherever. I am setting up the pitch for some nice turn and variable bounce.” Hopefully, our media too will support the curator and tell the visiting media where to go.

As always with the media from the old powers, everything has to suit their team and not the home team. Yes, they can prepare pitches the way they want to in their country, but India cannot do the same in India. Then comes the old chestnut about the curators being independent and preparing pitches according to how they know, while in India, they deliberately make pitches to assist the home team. Give me a break. Every curator everywhere in the world prepares pitches according to the strength of their team. If the pitch has too much bounce and is positively dangerous to life and limb, as the Brisbane pitch was a couple of years back against South Africa and the game finished on the third day, the excuse given was, “Oh, the curator got it wrong.” Really? How did he get it wrong? If your strength in attack is pace, you are going to prepare a pitch that helps the pacers. If the pitch had no help for the pacers and the ball was spinning, then you could argue he got it wrong.

It is just like the old days when we played there and received terrible decisions from the home umpires. The reason given was “human error.” However, if Indian or sub-continental umpires got it wrong, they were called “cheats” and “Butchers of Bombay” and so on. The condescending attitude was accepted by some Indian administrators who wanted to be invited to the MCC President’s box or another Test venue hospitality box. Now the BCCI has its own hospitality boxes all over the world, where the families and friends of the Indian players and BCCI administrators can watch and enjoy in comfort. The kowtowing ended long ago, and that is what irks the old powers. It eats at them that they need the BCCI and Indian cricket to keep their finances in good shape.

How else do you explain the sudden interest in having the Indian team over every year or so when previously it took decades for an India tour to their countries? India first toured Australia in 1947/48. The next tour was in 1967/68, and the one after that in 1977/78. This last tour of 1977/78 was when they suddenly noticed the following for Indian cricket, as thousands of Indians living in Australia came to watch the Test series. Since then, it has been every four years for India, as it is with their oldest rival, the ‘Mother Country’. However, in the last six years, this is India’s third tour to Australia, and next year the Indians will be touring for a white-ball series.

With all this, one would expect some sense of gratitude. However, the BCCI bashing continues for no reason. Stories are fabricated without any basis in truth, and if proven wrong, there is no acknowledgement. Thankfully, the current players of both teams accept that they have to play on the surfaces given to them, so while there might be murmurs in the change room and a nudge-nudge to their favourite media person, there is nothing in public. Look at the way Ben Stokes accepted the pitches in India and even recently in Pakistan, saying that his team was outplayed and needed to learn to play on such surfaces.

Have you ever heard an Indian player or a former player complain about the trampoline bounce of some surfaces or the grazing area for cattle masquerading as a Test match pitch in these countries? Never, as we accept that playing and winning overseas is a challenge since the conditions are different from home. Surprisingly, even the whingeing British media did not have anything to say about the surfaces in the final two Test matches, which they lost in Pakistan, once again strengthening the belief that when it comes to the BCCI and Indian cricket, the knives have to be out. Or maybe it is easier to be condescending to a country that does not have the clout that the BCCI has.

Remember the words, guys. Yes, remember the words and fling them back when the whingeing starts the next time they are in India.