Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has criticised the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for not inviting Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson to present the trophy named after them, after the end of India vs 2025 England Test series.
The newly minted Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series played between India and England ended in a 2-2 draw. However, neither Tendulkar nor Anderson were present during the trophy presentation ceremony despite both being in England at that time.
The 76-year-old Gavaskar questioned ECB’s conduct and drew parallels to what happened earlier in the year in Australia, where he was not included in the presentation ceremony and it was just Allan Border who presented the trophy at the end of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“This was the first-ever series named after Sachin Tendulkar and Jimmy Anderson, two of cricket’s greatest legends. One would have expected both to be present to hand the trophy to the two captains, especially since the series ended in a draw,” Gavaskar wrote in his column in the Sportstar.
“To the best of one’s knowledge, both were in England at the time. So, were they simply not invited? Or was this similar to what happened in Australia earlier this year, when only Allan Border was asked to present the Border-Gavaskar Trophy because Australia had won the series? Since this England series was drawn, perhaps neither was asked to attend the presentation,” he added.
The legendary batter was also not pleased with the practice of giving the newly instated Pataudi medal to the winning captain of the series instead of the player of the series. Notably, India captain Shubman Gill and England skipper Ben Stokes were both given a medal each with the series drawn 2-2.
“Mostly around the world, administrators are brought in to ensure profits and are quite good at it, but they may not have much knowledge about the history of the sport they are presiding over. So, these little gestures are not in their scheme of things. Nobody from the Pataudi family was there either, for the Pataudi Medal, which was to be presented to the winning team’s captain,” Gavaskar wrote.
“The drawn series showed how foolish this idea was of trying to make amends to the Pataudis by retiring the trophy named after them. Every time the series is drawn, the medal can’t be presented, can it? Wouldn’t it be better, therefore, to award the medal to the Man of the Series rather than the winning team’s captain? And what if the captain himself had an ordinary series and little impact on the result?
If there had been a result and the Pataudi Medal had to be given to the Man of the Series, it would have been a tough choice, for both skippers were simply outstanding,” he added.