Gavaskar slams England as 'champion whiners'

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the English cricket team as "champion whiners" after their six-match one-day series in India ended in a 3-3 draw.

England had complained about poor umpiring decisions and lack of proper practice facilities almost throughout the one-day series.

"Trust the champion whiners of the world to only moan about what affects them and not utter a word about what benefits them," Gavaskar wrote in his column in The Hindustan Times daily on Tuesday.

"The English skipper (Nasser Hussain) has obliquely referred to the decisions that have gone against his team as the reasons for his team's defeat, but when you look at the decisions in his side's favour, there has not even been a beep," he wrote.

"He (Hussain) got the benefit of the doubt in the Delhi game. Considering that India lost the game by only two runs, that decision made a difference."

After the first one-day match at Calcutta last month, Gavaskar wrote that England were robbed of the game due to poor umpiring decisions.

Gavaskar said the English team was "the most boring side to have played cricket in India" after the home side won December's Test series 1-0.

He also slammed India for "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" in the series.

India were up 3-1 in the one-day series before falling two runs short in New Delhi on Thursday and then failing in the chase to score 256 for victory on a good batting wicket in Bombay's Wankhede stadium on Sunday.

"India has to look seriously at its batsmen getting to the 20s and 30s and then throwing it away," Gavaskar wrote.

"There is inexplicable stubbornness about the combination of the team. It's very well to have faith in some but blind faith leads to a disaster as we saw at the Wankhede stadium."

Mail Cricket Editor