Sunil Gavaskar Against Use Of Placards To Guide Players During Matches

Days after England skipper Eoin Morgan defended receiving signals from the dressing room during a T20I match against South Africa, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar expressed objection over the use of placards during a match while pointing that "would there be a code there as well to help with the decision of taking the DRS?". The television coverage of the third T20I between England and South Africa showed England's white-ball analyst, Nathan Leamon, giving signals to the team. While Morgan had said it wasn't against the spirit of the game, Gavaskar firmly put forward his stance on the incident and said this should not be happening in cricket.

"I would like to know if the match referee had confirmed this with the ICC? Did they ask ICC? Has the cricket committee of the ICC sanctioned this, we don't know this yet. This is happening for the first time. We were told that this type of strategy was also used during Pakistan Super League and maybe this was the same person who adapted this technique who was an analyst there. But I don't believe this should be happening in cricket. The second thing that is worrisome is during the situation of a DRS, would there be a code there as well to help with the decision of taking the DRS?" Gavaskar asked while speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

Gavaskar also said that "Ideally, as a captain, I would not like this thing to happen. If I was the captain, I would say, look if you want to send a message about any field placing or a bowling change, then send the 12th man across with a bottle of water or anything....a way you can pass the message or the 12th man or the coach can pass the message to the boundary fielder."

Former cricketer VVS Laxman also echoed the sentiments and said a team does not require a captain if this forms a part of the rule.

"Often in T20 cricket if the captain needs to make a decision, he discusses it with the coach or the support staff or a senior player, and post that discussion a captain usually comes to a decision. But if this thing (use of placard) forms a part of the rule, then I believe it is not the right thing, as you want the captain to fulfill his role otherwise you don't require a captain, and the team can be run from outside similar to football where the manager runs the team," he said.

Former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden said: "The point about all of this is, how effective is it? I mean from what I understand is, some of these codes were getting mixed up, because there was a run-scoring spree during that potential time and that's the whole point of communications. You come together, you make sure you understand the plan and then you execute the plan, you can't just leave it as understanding it."

Topics mentioned in this article

England Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team VVS Laxman Matthew Hayden Cricket Sunil Gavaskar