India Providing Employment To South African Cricketers: Gavaskar On Grovel Remark
Going back into history, the former India star also pointed out how India helped modern South African cricket get back on its feet.
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar, while remarking on the comments made by South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad as ‘ill-advised use of the word’, said that Indian investment leads to employment generation for South African cricketers and the coach should have kept that in mind.
“When you consider the current landscape of South African cricket, especially the SA20, five out of the six franchises (all six) are Indian-owned. These owners are significantly supporting South African players – not just the international stars who are well taken care of, but the fringe players as well, giving them opportunities to build strong careers,” Cricbuzz quoted Gavasakar as saying to Jio Hotstar.
Going back into history, the former India star also pointed out how India helped modern South African cricket get back on its feet.
“You could say it was an ill-advised use of the word. We need to look back at South Africa’s re-entry into international cricket. It was the Indian Cricket Board that proposed South Africa’s readmission after more than 20 years of isolation, and their first international match on return was played in India,” Gavaskar said.
“Indian and South African cricket have shared a positive, collaborative relationship for decades.
Saying that he hopes to see Conrad address that issue in his next media interaction, Gavaskar added, “I don’t think an apology is necessary; I personally don’t believe in apologies. But acknowledging it and making up for it would be accepted by everyone. These things happen. In the heat of the moment, you can get carried away and say something that goes a bit over the top.”
“Given the strong connection between Indian and South African cricket over the last 30 years, I think he can simply clarify that he got a bit carried away.”
The word ‘grovel’, with racial connotations and history to it has been called a Taboo in cricketing parlance, given that it was used by an English cricket team captain, Tony Greig, when in 1976 he said that his team would make the West Indies grovel.
Greig was an English captain born in South Africa, where apartheid was in force during that period and therefore, the word was taken to be offensive, as it literally meant to crawl with face downwards, a basic understanding of domination by one of the other.
Conrad used the term after Day 4 of the Guwahati Test to convey why his team declared so late into the day. He had said, “We wanted them (India) to spend as much time on their feet out on the field. We wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase, bat them completely out of the game, and then say to them, ‘Well, come and survive on the last day and an hour this evening’.”
