Retired Australian vice captain Adam Gilchrist has questioned India’s sportsmanship and has singled out their greatest player Sachin Tendulkar for special criticism.
The wicketkeeper-batsman claims in a new book that the biggest difference between Australia and India is that his former teammates left hostilities on the field while many of their antagonists often snubbed their opponents.
Gilchrist’s autobiography, to be released next week, centers on the hostilities between the two cricketing powers in Australia last summer, which escalated after the Indians claimed Australia had not played in the spirit of the game.
Gilchrist pointed to tensions with Tendulkar, revealing he was “hard to find for a changing room handshake after we have beaten India.”
Writing about the dramatic final moments of the Sydney Test when India’s last two batsmen, Anil Kumble and Ishant Sharma, walked off without any Australians offering a handshake, Gilchrist said: “We went into the Indian changing room and shook hands.”
“Not all their players could be found, which points to another subtle cultural difference,” he said. “In the Australian mentality, we play it hard and are then quick to shake hands and leave it all on the field.”
“Some of our opponents don’t do it that way. Sachin Tendulkar, for instance, can be hard to find for a changing room handshake after we have beaten India. Harbhajan can also be hard to find,” Gilchrist said.
“I guess it’s a case of different strokes for different folks. But the criticism of us for not immediately shaking hands with Kumble and Sharma was unfair, and typified a moment when everything we did was wrong,” he said.
Gilchrist also criticized both the Indian and Australian cricket boards for their handling of the Harbhajan case after Symonds claimed he called him a monkey.
Gilchrist accused the Indian board of “playing politics” and Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council of “caving in” when the spinner’s original charge was downgraded and his suspension quashed.
“The Indian board made threats that they would take the team home — a disgraceful act, holding the game to ransom unless they got their way,” Gilchrist said.
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