Sunil Gavaskar was surprised that Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson didn’t turn up for the trophy presentation of the England-India Test series. This series used to be called the Pataudi Trophy but they changed the name to Tendulkar and Anderson. But neither Tendulkar nor Anderson was present to hand over the trophy to the captains.
Gavaskar feels that since the series is named after Tendulkar and Anderson, they should have been there to give the trophy to the captains. He is wondering why the England and Wales Cricket Board, the organisers of the event, didn’t invite these cricket legends after the series ended. Since it was the first time the trophy was named after Anderson and Tendulkar, Gavaskar felt their presence was necessary.
In his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar wrote that it was surprising that neither Tendulkar nor Anderson was asked to present the trophy. He points out that both were in England at the time. He wonders if they were not invited or if it was like what happened in Australia where only Allan Border presented the Border-Gavaskar Trophy because Australia had won. Since the series was a tie, Gavaskar thinks maybe neither Tendulkar nor Anderson was asked to attend.
Gavaskar also rued the fact that the Pataudi family was not invited to present the Pataudi medal. Ben Stokes, the England captain and Shubman Gill, the India captain were supposed to receive this medal. Gavaskar says that often sports administrators focus on profits and don’t know much about the sport’s history. Due to this lack of knowledge, historical gestures get overlooked.
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Gavaskar questioned the decision to retire the Pataudi Trophy and introduce a medal in its place. He says giving the medal to the series winner doesn’t work when the series is drawn. He suggests it would be better to give the medal to the Player of the Series instead of the winning captain if the captain didn’t have a great series.
Shubman Gill was declared the Player of the Series because he scored a lot of runs. In his first series as captain he scored 754 runs in 10 innings and broke many records. Brendon McCullum, the opposition coach said that Gill was India’s most valuable player.Harry Brook and not Ben Stokes was the England Player of the Series. Stokes was great as a leader and took 21 wickets in 4 matches but his absence in the final Test due to a shoulder injury was definitely felt by the team.
