• Friday, March 29, 2024

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India shouldn’t forget England’s gesture after 26/11: Gavaskar

Former India cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar (STRDEL/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

FORMER India captain Sunil Gavaskar has praised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over an offer to reschedule the cancelled fifth Test match between England and India at Old Trafford which was set to be played between September 10 and 14.

The legendary former opener said India should never forget England’s gesture of returning back to India to complete a tour which was suspended midway in November 2008 due to terror attacks in Mumbai that had killed several hundreds.

“Yes, I think that (rescheduling the cancelled Test) would be the correct thing to do. Look, we, in India, should never forget what the England team did in 2008 after the horrific attack, the 26/11. They came back,” Gavaskar told the Test series’ official broadcaster Sony Sports. “They would have been perfectly entitled to say ‘we don’t feel safe. We are not coming back’,” Gavaskar, 72, said.

ALSO READ: BCCI offers to reschedule cancelled England-India Test match

India shouldn't forget England's gesture after 26/11: Gavaskar
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen with India captain Virat Kohli. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

The fifth Test match was called off just hours before the toss on Friday (10) following a Covid outbreak in the Indian camp which left the tourists reluctant to play fearing a positive result might lead to 10 days of isolation and scheduling nightmare for the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is set to resume in the United Arab Emirates on September 19.

Officials of both the BCCI and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said that the cancelled match will be rescheduled at a later date as a one-off game but nothing official was announced yet. India were leading the series 2-1 with one match getting drawn when the fifth match was cancelled.

In 2008, England were set to play India in a one-day international in Cuttack in the eastern state of Odisha when the terror strikes happened in Mumbai. The last two matches of the seven-game series were cancelled with England players returning home immediately. India were leading the series 5-0 then.

They, however, returned in December to play a two-Test series which India won 1-0.

Gavaskar said the then England captain Kevin Pietersen was instrumental in England’s decision to return to India for the Test matches.

“Never forget that Kevin Pietersen led the team, and he was the main man. If KP had said, no I don’t want to go, that would have been the end of the matter,” the batting legend said, adding. “It was because KP was willing to go and he convinced the others, the team came and we had that fantastic Test match in Chennai where India chased 380 to win on the last day.”

Gavaskar also lauded the BCCI calling its rescheduling offer a “fantastic news” and said the cancelled Test can be held next year after the Indian Premier League.

“Don’t forget, the gesture of the ECB has to be remembered,” he said. “It’s absolutely apt that the BCCI now says, right next year, we are still coming to England. I think there will be a little lean period. I think the IPL will finish in early June. So there is enough time for them to go a few days early, depending on whether we still have Covid and all the restrictions and maybe play a Test match before or after,” Gavaskar added. “This is fantastic news coming that the BCCI will make up for it. This is exactly what the relations between boards should be,” the man who is the first to reach 10,ooo runs in Tests, said.

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