ICC to speak to Gavaskar over comments

The International Cricket Council is set to speak to former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar about comments he made about the England side that toured India recently.

In the Hindustan Times newspaper column, Gavaskar slammed the English team as "champion whiners" after their six-match one-day series that ended in a 3-3 draw.

Gavaskar was referring to umpiring decisions that England believed affected the first one-day international.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of the ICC executive meeting held in Christchurch, chief executive Malcolm Speed said the council would hold an informal discussion with Gavaskar on the matter.

Gavaskar is the ICC Cricket Commissioner (Playing) and England coach Duncan Fletcher reacted to the comments by saying a man in Gavaskar's position on the ICC should be unbiased.

When asked if he thought Gavaskar's role with the ICC and as a columnist was an unfortunate clash of interests, Speed said: "We will be having a word with Sunil Gavaskar, but I wouldn't categorise this as leaning on him or carpeting him.

"He has a valuable role as chairman of his committee and his role as a columnist is something entirely different."

Mail Cricket Editor