Should the BCCI question Sunil Gavaskar for his Jaydev Unadkat “joke”
Taking shots at players has become more of a trend in the modern era of sports and while it is enjoyable at times, it can even come off as a little cringe-worthy. Yesterday, when Sunil Gavaskar tried to show his lighter side, it ended up leaving a sour taste in the mouth of anyone who heard it.
“As far as Jaydev Unadkat is concerned, I think he was just bought for so much money. Maybe he might have splashed that money to make sure that he played in the final XI,” Gavaskar had said, with muffled laughter, after the first T20I against South Africa in Johannesburg.
He quickly followed that up with, “I am joking of course. He has such a good record in the IPL last year. He bowled exceptionally well when he was playing for the Pune team and clearly they wanted a left-hander in their ranks as well. He has got a good yorker. He bowls at a good pace – 140kmph. And the slower delivery that he has developed is also pretty deceptive.”
Not only was the comment extremely crass, there was absolutely no need for it. The 26-year-old had managed to concede just 33 runs in four overs and if his first over, where he was smashed for 14 runs, is excluded, he had an economy of almost a run a ball. Even the other experts struggled to understand the humour in Gavaskar’s comments and he quickly changed his line of speech to praise the left armed pacer. This wasn’t a brain fade moment, like the one he suffered while commentating in the final game, where he pulled out a Kohli statistic out of thin air claiming that the Indian skipper’s first ODI century came in his 105th ODI. This, in all honesty, is a dig at the now Royal’s player for something the pacer had absolutely no control over.
In the past, the BCCI has punished experts and commentators for offences that were far softer. Remember Harsha Bhogle. The Indian commentator was sacked from his duties after he failed to praise the Indian team more than the opposition in the 2016 World T20. He might have been the most recent and high profile name on the list but the list is actually longer. Arun Lal, in 2012, had been removed from the panel of Indian commentators because “allegedly” he had commentated in the Bangladesh Premier League, a league the BCCI classified as a direct competitor of the IPL.
If you think that is bizarre, Danny Morrison and Hylton Deon Ackerman were let go by the BCCI from the panel of IPL commentators for an even softer charge. In a match that they were calling, the duo had made the mistake of calling Virat Kohli “India's captain-in-waiting” - a fact that even in 2013 wasn’t really a National secret – at a time when MS Dhoni's captaincy had come under some scrutiny. Earlier that year, Sanjay Manjrekar made the grave error of “allegedly criticising” N. Srinivasan and Sundar Raman in a webcast.
Aussie legend Ian Chappell saved himself from any sort of embarrassment and quickly refused to commentate on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after realizing that his contract didn't permit him from discussing team selection, the decision review system or any of the administrative matters in the BCCI.
The Indian board has time and again been extremely swift in their decision making when anything remotely questionable is said. While for most parts, Gavaskar comes across as a very balanced commentator – something you cannot say about all the Indian commentators calling the game – he of all people should realize that when his integrity was questioned by Ramachandra Guha, he along with many others came out in his defence. How the BCCI take care of this remains to be seen but the lack of coverage of the incident indicates, that the matter is already dead.
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