Updated on: Dec 28, 2025 09:15 pm IST
Sunil Gavaskar took a pointy, sarcastic dig at Australia’s two-day Take a look at, highlighting the irony of Perth pitch earlier receiving a “very accurate” ranking.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch provided no respite after a frenetic opening day of the Boxing Day Take a look at, where all 20 wickets tumbled, and the contest raced in direction of an early function, at closing ending within two days with England rising on top. Batting modified into a constant combat for both Australia and England, because the ball swung appreciably and seamed sharply off the bottom. Even topic batters stumbled on it tough to settle, with uneven jump and continual hasten forcing errors and triggering an on a regular basis float of wickets.
Batting huge Sunil Gavaskar struck a pointy, sarcastic repeat while reacting to but one other two-day Take a look at in Australia, pointing out the irony of the Perth pitch earlier within the sequence receiving a “very accurate” ranking, at the same time as fans puzzled the declining quality of surfaces and the impact on the game’s credibility.
“One other Take a look at match in Australia has accomplished in not as a lot as two days of cricket. The Australian Cricket Board’s CEO says it just isn’t accurate industry, and most, if not all, cricket fans within the sub-continent (read India) are screaming blue execute regarding the quality of the pitch given in Melbourne. They had been astonished when essentially the most critical Take a look at match pitch in Perth modified into given a extremely accurate ranking by the match referee Ranjan Madugalle,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Also Read – Ben Stokes lucky to play for England; in India, he’d meet the same fate as ‘failed white-ball captain’ Virat Kohli
Gavaskar extended his humour by pointing out that a change in match referee could conveniently change the verdict as well. With Jeff Crowe overseeing the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, he hinted that the MCG pitch — where 36 wickets fell compared to 32 in Perth — might lose the “very” from “very good” and be rated simply “good,” though he added that surprises are always possible.
“Since there is a new match referee, Jeff Crowe, for the Melbourne and Sydney Test matches, the rating could be different. Since 36 wickets fell in the Melbourne Test instead of 32 in Perth, Crowe might drop the word ‘very’ from the ‘very good’ that Madugalle gave for the Perth pitch and rate the MCG pitch as good. Surprises never cease, of course, so we may get another rating,” he added.
Sunil Gavaskar calls out double standards
The Indian huge continued his tongue-in-cheek critique, backing the MCG’s turf team and calling out the hypocrisy in how pitch curators are judged. He famed that errors can occur wherever, nonetheless curators in Australia are seldom accused of manipulation, unlike these in India who’re hastily labelled villains — a level he drove dwelling with a wry, sarcastic flourish.
“The curators, or as we stumbled on out regarding the person responsible at the MCG, the Director of Turf, might per chance additionally construct a human error and gain it a little of irascible, nonetheless they’re not as devious as these ‘bad groundsmen’ in India who attain not even prepare a pitch and request the batters to attain runs on them. Tut tut,” Gavaskar added.
