Michael Vaughan, the former England skipper and a successful commentator, is often known to comment or tweet things that are more often than not, did not merit any serious discussion. He often tries to provoke the Indians by tweeting something about Kohli or Rohit or some of the star cricketers. Other times, he will praise the Indians. Both of them will not only get likes but will also polarise the people who are reading and responding to his comments. This is alright. India and Indians runs and sells the game and he like everyone else, wants to get into the bandwagon. I am going to get into whether he is paid or not paid for such tweets. He has something to say and he says without any fear or favour. However, what has gotten into Vaughan? His latest defies all cricketing logic.
Let us remember that Vaughan does not mince his words when it comes to England either. It is unfair to criticise him on the basis of his colour. His recent criticism of England when they lost the final Test to Sri Lanka is a case in point. He says it as he sees it.
“I felt that they disrespected Test cricket, and disrespected Sri Lanka in the third Test by being overly aggressive with the bat and in their field placings. England have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period – I think of the start of the Ashes, or earlier this year in Rajkot – and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for the tougher Tests that lie in wait in 2025. There is no way they will get away with playing like this against India or Australia.”
These are indeed, strong words. However, his latest is ridiculous.
Joe Root and Sachin Tendulkar
This is about Joe Root crossing Tendulkar in the tally of runs in Test cricket. Root has about 12,400 runs. He is behind Tendulkar by 3000 runs. Root has got another 3-4 years of cricket and if he could maintain his form, he could very well go past Tendulkar in the tally. The number of 100s will be a bit tough but not unachievable.
Speaking on the Club Prairie Fire podcast last week, Vaughan had said “there’s no way” BCCI would want an England player lead the list over an Indian.
“If Joe goes past Sachin, it will be the best thing that ever happens to cricket, because there’s no way BCCI would want an England player at the top of the list. They’ll want an Indian at the top so that will secure Test match cricket because it’ll take forever for someone to get past him.”
This sounds so ridiculous. I just cannot imagine BCCI not wanting someone to cross Tendulkar. Vaughan has questioned a board which does not care about the game, the players or about the spectators. Whether Root goes past Sachin or otherwise, I am damn sure the board is not worried about that. They have far bigger things to worry about than a simple statistic. The board is intent on making money from anywhere and everywhere. There is a reason BCCI arranges for games with Australia and England only and not with the other nations like Sri Lanka or West Indies away from the mandatory games that India need to play as part of the WTC calendar. It is simple economics. These games do not fetch any sort of high return that the BCCI expects.
Therefore, for Vaughan to even suggest that the BCCI will not allow Root to cross Sachin is ignorance.
Gavaskar has rebutted
Vaughan also says that Root going past Sachin is the best thing to happen to cricket. This is utterly and completely nonsense. Gavaskar has rightly asked,
“Please tell us what’s wrong with Test cricket presently when Tendulkar is owning the record and how will Test cricket be better if (and that’s a huge if) an Englishman goes on to hold it. In what way will it be better? Kindly enlighten us.”
Again, we can safely conclude that Vaughan does all these for sheer publicity and nothing else.