Image Credit- AP
The South Africa vs. India series’ second and final
Test match in Cape Town made headlines for all the wrong reasons. While Team
India lost their final six wickets of the innings without adding a run to the
153-run total, the Proteas were all out for just 55 runs in the opening
innings. It was the shortest Test match in the history of the format, with the
visitors winning by seven wickets in just five sessions.
Additionally, Rohit drew attention to the disparities
in evaluations of pitches in SENA nations. On Sunday, Sunil Gavaskar, the
former captain of India, also participated in the discussion and discussed the
“excuses” provided for pitches like the one in Cape Town.
“These kind of excuses that the curator got it wrong
is typical of the SENA countries,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-day.
Referring to India’s four-match Test series against Australia last year, the
former India batter said, “When our curators make a dry pitch then it’s
‘chicanery’, as a former Australian skipper said last year after the Aussies
had been walloped in the first two Test matches. So our groundsmen do it
deliberately, but their groundsmen just get it wrong. It’s like before the third
country umpires came in, where decisions by their umpires were excused as
‘human error’ while our umpires were cheats and ‘Delhi Butchers’ and all such
derogatory headlines.”
“In about three weeks time another Test series starts
with a country that has the biggest whingeing and moaning media in sport.
Anything that doesn’t suit their team will be criticised and allegations will
fly thick and fast,” wrote the former India skipper.
The first Test between India and England takes place
between January 25 to 29 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in
Hyderabad.