Gavaskar slams ICC for not acting against Smith

Team Udayavani, Mar 9, 2017, 4:45 PM IST

New Delhi: Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the International Cricket Council (ICC) for not penalising Steven Smith after the Australian captain illegally sought the dressing room’s advice on a DRS referral during the second Test against India.

Gavaskar said he would love to see India captain Virat Kohli take the help of the dressing room for a DRS call in the next Test in Ranchi and not get penalised.

“It can’t be that some countries get favourable treatment and some countries do not get favourable treatment,” Gavaskar told NDTV.

“If an Indian player (seeks illegal advice from the changeroom) then he also should not be pulled up at all.

“I would actually love to see Virat Kohli, if he is given out (in the third Test) … and he looks at the Indian dressing room, get some sort of feedback from them.

“Yes or no, I don’t know what signal they decide upon.

Let’s see what the match referee and the ICC decides then,” he said further.

The ICC yesterday decided not to press charges against Smith as well as opposition captain Kohli, who was quick to report Smith’s glance towards the dressing room with the on-field umpire.

The incident snowballed into a major controversy with the respective boards, BCCI and Cricket Australia, backing their respective captains.

Gavaskar said ICC match referee Chris Board did not see anything wrong in what Smith did and that was the end of it.

“(Broad) hasn’t seen that there is anything that was done that was in breach of the ICC Code of Conduct,” Gavaskar said.

“I can rave and rant and do whatever we have to do about it but the match referee says nothing’s the matter or at least that’s what the ICC statement suggests.

“You can say it’s wrong, it’s not correct, it’s a snub to the BCCI and Virat Kohli and the Indian team but basically that is that.