Nottingham: Former Indian captains Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly on Sunday slammed Michael Vaughan for kicking up the ‘vaseline controversy’ unnecessarily, terming the comments by the ex-England skipper as “ridiculous” and aimed at a psychological game against the visitors.
“It’s ridiculous to suggest for someone who has played international cricket. To say so about Indian players and more so about VVS Laxman is absurd,” Ganguly said in an angry reaction.
“There has been sharp reaction within the commentator’s box with Sunil Gavaskar suggesting Laxman would be within his right to haul Vaughan to the court. I have a feeling this issue could linger,” said Ganguly.
Vaughan had yesterday tweeted that Laxman might have used vaseline on the edge of his bat to avoid detection by the hot spot technology after a caught-behind appeal against the batsman was neither supported by the umpire nor by the Decision Review System.
England’s hat-trick hero Stuart Broad later said that he even had a feel of Laxman’s bat to check if there was vaseline or any liquid in it but found nothing.
Ganguly was scathing in his attack on Vaughan, saying that the former England skipper was trying to play a psychological game against the Indians which he said will no longer work on the world number one visiting side.
“It’s an important series and an attempt to go after the Indian batters. We know where it is coming from and why it is coming from. If you want to win the series, you got to be fair. This sort of press works in Australia and you are trying to do the same. I hope India has the last laugh,” he said. (PTI)