One of the most revered cricket commentators, columnist and Indian legend, Sunil Gavaskar is receiving a great amount of criticism for a seemingly ignorant query about the stand-in Aussie skipper, Steve Smith. He has been criticized for claiming that he hasn’t watched Smith’s game much.
Gavaskar has been commentating in the 4th Test of the latest edition of the tournament which bears his name among the two legends after whom the Trophy is named. He has been a regular member of the commentary teams which covered the previous editions of this tournament held between India and Australia.
On the first day of the test, just after the game resumed following the tea break, Gavaskar asked his co-commentator Matthew Hayden, former Australian opener, “I haven’t seen much of Steve Smith. Is he a compulsive puller?”
His comment apparently emanated as a reaction to the string of bouncers presented to Smith by Indian quickie Umesh Yadav. The question on the face of it looks naive and pretty normal, but the fact that Gavaskar has been regularly commentating in India- Australia matches and is supposed to have watched Smith play extensively, supposedly caused displeasure among cricket fans.
Gavaskar has not been a stranger to controversies in recent times, due to his comments. His comment about the then Indian Skipper Virat Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma when Kohli was going through a patch of bad form, triggered sharp reactions from Kohli and Anushka and their numerous fans. Of late Sunil Gavaskar has had a bit of a rough patch with a few scathing remarks of him where apparently followers of the sport believe that he is losing his ploy in his twilight. Then again, knowing Sunny G, he has always been a man of very sharp words and he won’t hesitate to pull back the trigger if needed.
