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Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for not inviting James Anderson and Sachin Tendulkar to the presentation ceremony of the Anderson-Tendulkar 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 over the trophy to the two captains, especially since the series ended in a draw,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.He also recalled a similar incident earlier this year in Australia, where he was excluded from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy presentation ceremony, with only Allan Border present at the conclusion. The explanation given at the time was that Australia had won the series, hence only their namesake was included.“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 said.Gavaskar also criticised the practice of awarding the newly introduced Pataudi Medal to the series-winning captain instead of the Player of the Series.
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“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 part of their scheme of things.Nobody from the Pataudi family was there either, for the Pataudi Medal, which was presented to the winning team’s captain.The drawn series showed how flawed the 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 Player of the Series rather than the winning captain? And what if the captain himself has had an ordinary series and made little impact on the result?” Gavaskar said.
