Gavaskar on Procter

'That's a shocker'

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

Text size: A | A



Alter ego: the conflict of interests between Gavaskar's roles as chairman of ICC Cricket Committee and columnist is causing concern © Getty Images
Enlarge
 

"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.

FeedbackTop
Email Feedback Print
Share
E-mail
Feedback
Print
ESPNcricinfo staffClose

    The mysterious Mr Narine

Bought as a rookie for an eye-popping fee, Sunil Narine and his knuckle ball have delivered in the IPL. Next up? Watch out, Test cricket. By Nagraj Gollapudi

Young quick with lower back pain?

Bone stress injuries cannot be taken lightly - they have ended many careers and put others on hold, says Andrew Leipus

Someone smiling on Sammy

Mark Nicholas describes how Darren Sammy finally brought up his first Test century

    A pretty good day to be a 'Sam'

Two Chucks: Darren Sammy shuts everyone up, England bowlers look knackered, and what fans think of Nick Knight

Better win than be second favourites

Kimber: WI need to do more than just challenge teams

News | Features Last 7 days

Six Indian IPL players to watch out for

Four young batsmen and two medium-pacers should be on the selectors' radar

Free-spenders can't buy consistency

Despite splashing money this season, Mumbai Indians were rarely at the top of their game and most of their wins came through last-over heists

The madness of benching Morne Morkel

To make up for Irfan Pathan's absence, Delhi Daredevils made two changes, one of which was leaving out Morne Morkel. And that made a significant difference

Narine's remarkable season

Analysis of individual batting and bowling performances in IPL 2012

The best batsman in Twenty20 cricket

Chris Gayle has scored 2591 runs in this format in the last 17 months, at an average of 57 and a strike rate of 170. No other batsman comes close

News | Features Last 7 days
  • Cricinfo Widgets
Sponsored Links

Watch Bollywood movies for free

Transfer Money. Apply Online Now!

Access your Indian Rupee earnings from anywhere in the world.

on registering and transfer of USD 250 and above.

Available now at Cricshop