A battle is heating up between Gavaskar and Ponting in regards to on field behaviour of the Australian's in particular Ponting as Captain.

So is this war of words a way for India to distract the Australian captain - if it is they are playing with fire, they only need to see what happened to England in the 2007 Ashes tournament when they started having a go at Ponting for losing the 2005 Ashes.

I find it quite sad that Gavaskar has defended his actions of trying to take India off the field after being given out LBW, by trying to blame the action on Australian abusive behavouir - rather than him being upset about being given out LBW.

Ponting is a "Hot Head" and has admitted on every occassion that he has over re-acted to the situation, I don't like him as a captain but at least he has the menatl strength to admit to his faults and take resonability for his actions.

Ponting might be a 'hot head' but he is no match in bad behaviour for Gavaskar. I was 16 when Gavaskar first played for India and so have followed his career pretty much throughout. He might have been a great batsman, but he was and still is an absolute a*****e when it comes to behaviour. He has always been an anti-establish man, petulant when opposed and has made a fool of himself more than once on the field. He once played left handed in defiance of some admnistrative decision that went against him. He also has the nasty habit of poking his nose where it does not belong and offering opinions that are delibrately inflammatory. The fact that he has a great battig record for India does not excuse his attitude problem in the slightest and if the younger members of these forums that are unfamiliar with 'Gavaskar the man' think he is a saint, they are very sadly mistaken. Gavaskar was always a disgrace to true sportsmanship and would never have been tolerated had he been playing in this day and age.

I think both Gavaskar and Ponting are giving unnecessary remarks. One is a retired legend and the other is the captain of a three-time world champion team. Its sad to see them going at each other like that. It is a fact that Gavaskar didnt exactly set great examples of on field behavior in his time and Ponting does not have a clean record in that respect either. Now both are arguing over the matter in a way that reflects their on-field behavior well.

I think Gavaskar crossed the line by dragging late David Hooks into this. Hooks' death has nothing to do with cricket and Gavaskar should know what to say and what not.

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My computer can beat me at chess.....but its no match for me at kick boxing.

How does Gavaskars have the right to come out for no reason and take shots at Ponting, Gavaskar is one of the worst behaved cricketers on the field in the history of the game, he makes Ponting look like a boy scout. Its quite silly really you can tell Gavaskar had nothing to come back with Ponting's responce all he could say is that they could get beaten up if the went out to a club and acted like they do onfield.What has any of this got to do with cricket it seems that Gavaskar is not the sharpest tool in the shed because he has been depants by Ponting's comments and he should have not said another word. What made me sick was that ***** of **** used David Hookes death as an example of what might happen to Ponting. I think if Gavaskar found his way into a pub that I was in he might have a fist quite close to his face. (",)

It is funny how past players are always commenting negetivly do they have anything positive to say. I think that he dislikes Ponting because he is a better batsman and he will smash his records.

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

Gavaskar has always been an opinionated little plank,at least on this occasion he isn't slagging off England which he loves doing as well.The comments about Hookes are a disgrace and shouldn't have been made.

Quite honestly, I always believed that Gavaskar was a little touched in the head even during his playing days. It would be very hard to attribute some of his on-field antics (not to mention off-filed ones) to a sane man. He has an ego as big as Mt Everest and he should be the last person to comment on Ponting or any other player in the world. The only reason that he got away with as much as he did was because of his 'batting superstar' position for India and even that was beginning to get shaky towards the end of his career. No matter what his batting record is, he does not deserve to be considered on the same level as gentlemen like Tendulkar and Dravid. I don't have the slightest respect for him; on the contrary, he is one of the game's worst representatives.

The fact that Australian side under Ponting is not well behaved is known to every body. Indians vividly remember one occassion when Ponting caught a bumb ball and verbally pounced ont he Umpire who did not give the batsman out. Even the aged and matured Mcgrath has on occassions behaved badly under Ponting. Australians call sledging as a legitimate psychological weapon. South African Nel is now the other aggressive person onthe field. Some how the Aussies appear to escape disciplinary action while ICC tries to punish a Sreesanth who reatcts to Nel or a Sehwag who makes a loud appeal. There is a double standard in the ICC when it comes to disciplining the players for sledging.

Coming to two incidents mentioned by some members about Gavaskar, it must be remembered that Gavaskar led Chauhan off the field not because he was once again given out erroneously, but because he heard Lillie making some rude comment when Gavaskar was returning to the pavillion.

Secondly, Gavaskar played left hand for some time in a Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka when he felt that the left arm spinner Raghuram BHat was unplayable because of the pitch conditions. It was a stroke of genius which saved the day for Mumbai.

I also remember the older generation Aussies from the Bill Lawrie era when in Bangalore, facing an imminent defeat against Prasanna and Chandrashekar and having been reduced to 42 for 7 against a regional side, Lawrie and Gleeson started wasting time and padding up to every thing (Those days the lbw rules were different) ad ultimately saw the session through.

Except Gilchrist, Aussies seem to be a bunch of cricketers who think they are aggressive when they insult others.

Even the reaction of Ponting is too harsh and unwarranted for an innocuous comment made by Gavaskar. It vindicates Gavaskar's views.

Naavi

Listen Naavi, I'm Indian too and followed Gavaskar's career from 1971-85 first hand, and so know exactly what the discerning public and the media really thought of him, even at 'home'. Nobody, not even the Indian media at the time, belived that story about a 'rude comment' made by Lillee, which was a complete fabrication by Gavaskar to avoid facing a disciplinary action for his stupid walk-off. Most reports say that all that Lillee said after pointing to Gavaskar's pad was "That's where it hit you, mate". And those two quoted incidents were just one of several that plainly illustrated that the "Little Monster" was not all there.

Innocuous? Gavaskar could not be innocuous if he tried a million years. No civilised sportsman would have made the sort of comments that Gavaskar did about the late Hookes. No matter what his batting achievements were, Gavaskar is a complete disgrace to sportsmanship.

helloo nostromo
i am not here to defend some stupid comments made by gavaskar but i have biggest of doubts
wherever there is chance for india bashing in this forum i see only one name cropping up there to support the bashing that is yours
r u really indian? r just trying to malign every now and then about india and indians?

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Heat Sucks-Red Death

I really am not obliged to explain myself personally to you but if you must know, YES, I am very much an Indian from Bangalore. My family used to know that of V Subramaniam, the former Ranji Trophy player from Mysore (as it was then known) quite well. As I have said before, I am a strong supporter of Indian cricket- have been for over 40 years.

But that's besides the point. Who one supports is irrelevant when it comes to criticising outrageous behaviour - like that of Gavaskar throughout his career. Like everyone in these forums irrespective of nationality, I have a right to express an opinion within the framework of the rules and if that involves a dislike of my own countryman's petulant antics, so be it. If you don't like my opinions, nobody is forcing you to read them! If your idea of "India bashing" is the fact that I believe that India are unlikely to win this World Cup because of Dravid's unimaginative captaincy, then you have little idea of what constructive crticism should be like. I have great respect for Dravid as a sportsman and a Test batsman, but I also believe that he is not the ideal captain. But I would be very happy to be proven wrong if he succeeds in leading India to victory in this World Cup.