London: Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar believes England’s cricketers would have “hit the panic button” and talked of leaving the series midway if the UK riots had happened in India.
England and India face off in the third cricket Test in Edgbaston amid growing riots in the UK after a youth was allegedly killed in police firing.
Gavaskar said a situation like this in India would have evoked reactions of wanting to leave by English cricketers.
“No question about it, they would have been pressing the panic button. They would have been talking in terms of the team returning home. That is a given,” Gavaskar told the ‘Sun’ newspaper.
England, under Kevin Pietersen, did leave a tour of India midway after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 but came back to complete the series after a while.
Current Test captain Andrew Strauss has, meanwhile, insisted that the tensions on the street have not affected his team’s preparation for the third Test, a win in which would give England an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series and the world number one tag.
“When you watch scenes on TV, it is horrific and far from England’s proudest m oment. But, in terms of our preparation, it has not affected us. We intend going out and playing the game as we would any other. “A few of the guys went out early on Monday evening but the advice from our security manager was to come back as there were some disturbances. This is an opportunity for cricket to put out a feel-good factor,” he said. (PTI)