London, March 25 (IANS) Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar will in all likelihood be sacked from his post as chairman of International Cricket Council’s (ICC) cricket committee, it was reported by the media here Tuesday.
According to a report in The Times, in an unanimous vote at last week’s ICC executive committee meeting in Dubai, it was decided that Gavaskar should be asked to resign because of a conflict of interest between his honorary ICC position and his paid role as a columnist and commentator.
Apparently the ICC is incensed with Gavaskar’s reaction in his syndicated column where the legendary batsman described England and Australia as “dinosaurs” who cannot “open their eyes and see the reality”.
Gavaskar wrote: “The cricketing world has found that India has no longer a diffident voice but a confident one that knows what is good for its cricket, and will strive to get it.”
Gavaskar was defending his criticism of Mike Procter, the ICC Match Referee, in January after he had ruled against Harbhajan Singh for an allegedly racist aside to Andrew Symonds during the second Test match between Australia and India in Sydney.
“What may have worried these people was the manner in which India defended Harbhajan Singh,” Gavaskar wrote. “When all the technology in the world was unable to prove that he had indeed said anything, these guys, especially those in Australia, were unable to stomach it.
“Those worried of the prospect of India’s hegemony were conveniently forgetting that only a few years back there were two Australians at the top of the ICC. It is a misplaced belief that they are the only ones with honesty, integrity and have the welfare of the game at heart, while the ‘sub-continentals’ do not.”
Procter’s ruling was overruled on appeal by a High Court judge from New Zealand, but David Morgan, the ICC president-elect, said at the time: “Conflicts of interests pervade our sport. In terms of Gavaskar, within the ICC there is a concern that he’s chairman of the cricket committee and a journalist who has expressed some fairly outspoken comments.”