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Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh is not letting his injured foot keep him from the headlines. Harbhajan is the latest local to be miffed by the frank opinions expressed in Adam Gilchrist’s new autobiography, launched last week.
Gilchrist has already had a minor international incident on his hands after criticisms of Sachin Tendulkar were relayed via excerpts, and now he has raised the ire of Harbhajan for insinuating that he and Sourav Ganguly withdrew from the pivotal Nagpur Test in the 2004 Border-Gavaskar Test series because the wicket was tinged with green.
When asked about the claims, which were first widely circulated at the time of the 2004 series, Harbhajan was not impressed.
“It’s time somebody asked him to shut up,” he told the Kolkata Telegraph.
“I suppose Gilchrist needs to get his head examined.
“Gilchrist shouldn’t be using fellow cricketers to sell his book … I’m sure there are other ways of doing that.”
The 2004 series was a major triumph for Australia, their first series win in India since 1969-70, and also for Gilchrist, who captained the touring team for the first three matches while fulltime skipper Ricky Ponting recovered from a broken thumb.
Intrigue has always surrounded the Nagpur match, as Australia’s 342-run victory to clinch the series seemed to be aided by the political battles at BCCI boardroom level – the local association preparing a wicket that helped the visiting quick bowlers as a way of damaging the standing of a rival faction.
“When I got to the middle for the toss, Ganguly was not there,” Gilchrist wrote.
“(Rahul) Dravid was in the blazer, ready for the toss. ‘Where’s Sourav?’ I said. Rahul couldn’t answer definitively. Between the lines I perceived that Sourav might have pulled out from fear of losing a home series.
“Harbhajan was out of the Nagpur Test with a ‘flu’, which he seems to have contracted when he saw the grassy wicket.
“I still don’t know to this day what was wrong with Ganguly and Harbhajan.”
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