India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar made a scathing evaluation of cricket’s present concussion substitute rule in the course of the India-England Outdated Trafford Check, terming it nothing however a alternative cushion used for the good thing about “incompetent” batters who can not deal with short-pitched bowling.
Gavaskar’s remarks got here after India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant suffered a fractured toe whereas batting on Wednesday in Manchester earlier than making a dramatic return to bat and rating a half-century in India’s first-innings on Day 2. Talking on Sony Sports activities on a dialogue of like-for-like substitutes to be carried out in cricket, Gavaskar first questioned the present concussion substitute rule, that restricted the character of accidents for which a participant might be substituted to bat and ball in a match somewhat than assembly solely fielding necessities as wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel will do for Pant within the the rest of the match.
“I’ve all the time felt that you’re giving a like-for-like substitute for incompetence. If you’re not adequate to play short-pitched bowling, don’t play Check cricket; go and play tennis or golf. You might be giving a like-for-like substitute for any person who can’t play the quick ball and will get hit,” mentioned Gavaskar on the rule that got here into impact in mid-2019.
Nonetheless, Gavaskar mentioned the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) should evaluate the foundations to permit sure replacements for accidents just like the one Pant sustained freakishly whereas making an attempt a reverse swipe off quick bowler Chris Woakes on Day 1 of the fourth Check within the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
“Right here, it’s a clear harm (Pant); there must be a substitute. I would like some type of committee appointed to take a name on this. There’s a cricket committee, ICC has a cricket committee, however in the mean time that’s headed by Sourav Ganguly, the ICC chairman is Jay Shah, and the ICC CEO is Sanjog Gupta,” mentioned Gavaskar.
With a number of Indians heading a number of positions within the worldwide board, Gavaskar mentioned a contemporary committee might look into the substitution roles to take care of objectivity.
“So we don’t need a state of affairs for the media right here particularly and in Australia to say, ‘Oh, as a result of it’s an Indian state of affairs, they’ve began to do this’. So, let or not it’s a very completely different committee to have a look at these accidents, possibly with docs, and so on., and let that committee come to a name,” he added.
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When Gavaskar slammed India for concussion sub use
This isn’t the primary time the legendary Mumbai cricketer had slammed the utilization of the concussion sub. Earlier this yr, Gavaskar lambasted the Indian crew administration after they used the loopholes within the concussion sub-rule to swap all-rounder Shivam Dube for quick bowler Harshit Rana after the previous’s batting innings.
“Even by essentially the most beneficiant stretching of the like-for-like time period, there was nothing such between Dube and Rana. With tongue firmly in cheek, one can say that they’re the identical peak and have the identical customary in fielding. In any other case, there’s nothing like-for-like so far as they’re involved. England has each purpose to really feel carried out in. This Indian crew is an excellent crew and doesn’t want its wins to get tarnished by such acts,” he wrote in a column for The Telegraph.