‘They Can’t Stomach IPL Fees Of Indians’: Sunil Gavaskar Slams England For Their ‘Doing You A Favour’ Attitude, Says Great Fun Watching Them Lose

Sunil Gavaskar. (Image: ANI)

Former India batter and legend Sunil Gavaskar is known for expressing his thoughts without any hesitation. He is not apolitical when it comes to his cricketing thoughts and does not like to mince words to suit a particular narrative. Rather, he likes to call things as is. Gavaskar felt that England played with an unnecessary superiority complex. He said that it was a lot of fun to see a young Team India thrash them like that. After winning the first match at Hyderabad, England lost four on the trot and India defused the Bazball. 

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In an article written for Sportstar magazine, Gavaskar was trying to underline the attitude of England which reflects that they are doing a favour on someone.

“What a walloping, what great fun to watch a young India team demolish an England team that had arrived in India with the usual ‘we are doing you a favour’ attitude that brings a smirk on the faces of those Indian officials who go to receive them at various airports,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Sportstar,” wrote Gavaskar.

Gavaskar took potshots at England players by saying that some of them  are plain jealous of Indian cricketers because of the massive IPL fees the Indian cricketers draw from the cash-rich league. Gavaskar saw this as a big reason why there are many onfield altercations between the players when they play each other.

“Some of them can’t stomach the fees for which some of the Indian players are bought and compare their achievements at the international level when the IPL auction dynamics can be so volatile and hard to explain or even understand. So you see more lip in the India-England encounters than in any other India match. That’s why the pleasure of beating England is always greater.

“That is also the reason why the England and Indian players get into verbal skirmishes so often when they are playing against each other. Not a lot of England players are picked in the IPL, mainly because they can be withdrawn by their Board anytime for a preparation camp or something, which leaves the franchises in a lurch,” Gavaskar wrote.

Not to forget, in WPL, many England cricketers including Heather Knight and now in IPL, Jason Roy and Harry Brook have pulled out last minute citing personal reasons. Gavaskar’s comments are an indirect attack on these cricketers. Ben Stokes too decided to not play this year’s IPL as he wanted to focus on national duties. Stokes was a part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) last year but barely played a game due to knee injury. 

Gavaskar didn’t stop there. He also took digs at Australian cricketers, saying they are better travellers in India and the only reason that they give respect to India as a cricketing nation is because they see a golden goose in the form of IPL. Gavaskar said that some undeserving Aussie cricketers go for astronomical figures on auction.