Ashok Malhotra clearly out of line, says Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has hit out at Ashok Malhotra, the president of the newly-formed Indian Cricketers' Association (as per the Lodha Committee recommendations) for voicing his not-in-favour opinion on the proposed four-day Tests recently.

"In this debate, the president of the newly formed Indian Cricketers' Association has dropped his two-bit which is fine but he should have made it clear that it was in his personal capacity and not as the president of the Indian Cricketers' Association. That but for the position he holds, not many would have been remotely interested in his views is another matter altogether but what his comments to the media suggest is that it's a decision of the ICA, Gavaskar wrote in his Straight Drive column which appeared in today's Sunday Mid-day.

Gavaskar and Malhotra played in the Indian team during the 1980s. The then Haryana batsman made his Test debut under Gavaskar's captaincy in the 1981-82 series against England.

He added: "Now, to the best of knowledge there has been no poll taken among the members of the association and so he is clearly out of line in expressing views that sound like that of the body of cricketers. In any case, the ICA will never be seriously taken unless it also has members from the current playing fraternity and that apparently is not what the BCCI allows. So the question is who is the ICA representing and how does it even become effective without the support of the current players. Who are they speaking for? The retired players? The BCCI is looking after the retired players very nicely with the monthly pensions though perhaps with the start of the new decade and inflation being what it is, an increase in the amount would be in order. The BCCI income has grown exponentially in the last decade with the sponsorships for various events and while the state associations get a huge increase in their subsidies the pension for the retired players hasn't changed for years."

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates