| Series | Countries | Live Scores | Fixtures | Results | News |
Features
|
Photos | Video & Audio | Blogs | Statistics | Archive | Games | Mobile | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sunil Gavaskar's comments seemingly accusing Mike Procter of racism in the Harbhajan Singh-Andrew Symonds hearing after the Sydney Test have created a fair few ripples
ESPNcricinfo staff
January 25, 2008
|
|
![]()
| ||
"Millions of Indians want to know if it was a white man taking the white man's word against that of the brown man. Quite simply, if there was no audio evidence nor did the officials hear anything, then the charge did not stand. This is what has incensed the millions of Indians who are flabbergasted that the word of one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Sachin Tendulkar, was not accepted."
The original comments in a newspaper column by Sunil Gavaskar that sparked the furore
"Sunil Gavaskar manages to operate as the chairman of the ICC's cricket committee while also acting as peppery columnist and media provocateur [...] this senior officer [Gavaskar] of the ICC has launched an attack on a referee of the ICC that can do nothing, but damage to the organisation, to the relations between countries, and to the game itself."
Gideon Haigh in a column on Cricinfo
"Procter would have been one of the world's greatest allrounders and now he is getting mud thrown in [his] face, and I'm very angry about it because he can't defend himself. We made a stand in our country - we couldn't take a more public stand than what we did - but now everybody pretends it didn't happen and Procky is being labelled something he is not."
Barry Richards defends Mike Procter, citing the protest against apartheid that Procter was a part of
"That's a shocker. He [Gavaskar] should decide who he's working for. In his position he's not supposed to be on any side. He's supposed to be neutral."
John Reid, former New Zealand captain and an ICC match referee for ten years
"He [once] wrote a letter to Supersport [the South African broadcaster] demanding that I be sacked because I was a racist. I don't know why this [race] card is played all the time. It is fragmenting the cricket world."
Richards recounts an incident from the past
"Conflicts of interests pervade our sport. In terms of Gavaskar, within the ICC there is a concern now that he's chairman of the cricket committee and a journalist who has expressed some fairly outspoken comments."
David Morgan, the ICC's president-elect reveals his concerns over Gavaskar's double role
"All I'm saying is, I got heaps of calls from people in India, and emails, and they were asking that question. Literally millions of Indians were wondering why this decision was made with no substantiated evidence. Is it because Mike Procter is a white man and he is taking the word of a white man and not Sachin Tendulkar? I haven't called him [Procter] a racist at all."
Gavaskar presents his defence
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

How to turn from a nobody into an IPL star
Aakash Chopra: Apart from plenty of luck, you need to pick your team wisely, bat at the top and have your captain's support
Fixing? It's people like us doing it
Ed Hawkins: It's convenient to blame the underworld for every instance of fixing, but it's ordinary punters behind many of them
The perils of scoffing at failure
Rob Steen: Excessive success can destroy inhibition, and hence the capacity for shame
New Zealand shaken and stirred
Andrew Alderson: The second-innings collapse at Lord's has revived concerns about New Zealand's top order
The divine madness of Kevin Pietersen
Jon Hotten: Players like him, when absent, stir a yearning in the spectator that has nothing to do with team loyalty
A talent that didn't know its own worth
Sreesanth wasn't the most likeable team-mate or opponent, but he had skill beyond doubt, which we might have seen the last of
Even at the height of his success with the national side, Sreesanth was a lonely cricketer who felt hard done by
Pollard sledges Watson, Dravid is angry
Plays of the day from the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai
A time for anger, a time for action
Out of the shattered lives of three young men caught up in allegations of fraud, newer and stronger players must emerge
Mumbai Indians still have a better head-to-head record against Chennai Super Kings, but once again on the big occasion, they came second
Even at the height of his success with the national side, Sreesanth was a lonely cricketer who felt hard done by
Mumbai Indians still have a better head-to-head record against Chennai Super Kings, but once again on the big occasion, they came second
Anderson's magic not to be missed (50)
None of the other three England bowlers with 300 Test wickets - or many other of the game's finest swing merchants - could have bowled better than James Anderson at Lord's
A case of peaking too early (41)
Royal Challengers began the season in full steam, but failed to replicate their consistency away from home
"Minimise sixes" - Two words sum up farcical contest (40)
The eight-over dash between Bangalore and Chennai was as close as cricket played on the field can get to cricket played on smartphone apps
ICICI Bank M2I. Register Now and Get A Gift Offer.
Safe & simple online money transfer. Apply Now!
Buy Wisden 2013 & get a FREE Playfair
Available now at Cricshop