Not so sunny days

Sunil Gavaskar is no mellower or wiser with his mouth all these years after he wrote Sunny Days, his autobiography. For those that haven't read it, I urge you, try it. A more intemperate book it'd be harder to find. It says something about the status of the man that he managed to retain any friends in the Indian cricketing scene after penning that book. So, this latest spat over the business of player behavior is not surprising. What is surprising is Gavaskar deciding to bring up something thats been talked about before with predictable results: Australian player behavior. The Aussies are right to feel a bit aggrieved that its only their on-field behavior that is ever brought up, and Ponting's immediate jumping to his team's defense wasn't surprising. But then the incompetence continued; Ponting decided to attack India's results (what that has to do with their behavior on the ground or with the content of what Gavaskar said is beyond me), and then Gavaskar decided to get well and truly silly with his mentioning David Hookes. That was well and truly below the belt, and there was no need for it. Besides, its completely irrelevant. Hookes' death had nothing to do with cricket, sledging or Aussies. It had everything to do with alcohol-related violence, and there is plenty of that in India in well. Should someone now bring up gang violence in Mumbai? Or Sidhu's conviction for manslaughter? Or something else entirely?

This was a pretty idiotic episode from start to finish (I hope its finished) and Gavaskar hasn't made any friends, and made it harder for his friends to defend him.