'His media page will have more followers then' - Sunil Gavaskar feels Michael Vaughan has developed a fine art of criticizing Indian player or cricket

Former England captain Michael Vaughan stays active on social media a lot. Every now and then he gives his honest views on cricketing matters. When it comes to Indian cricket, he sometimes loves to show his humorous side teasing a plethora of fans from the country. More often than not, he is at the receiving end of all the abuses from the fans but that doesn’t matter much for Vaughan.

Meanwhile, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar reckons that criticising an Indian player or Indian cricket is a deliberate strategy not only of Vaughan but also of players from other countries who are not known much. The 72-year-old is of the opinion that the power of Indian cricket is so much that if one says anything about any player from the country, it gets picked up by the media and they get the limelight.

“Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, has developed this into a fine art and is quite candid about it. He actually is a very humorous guy and great fun to be with and he knows that once every few days a teaser about an Indian player or Indian cricket is going to get him plenty of hate and sometimes vile responses, but his media page will have more followers than what he had before his latest post.

“As the current series is going on between India and England, there are many from other countries who have been having their say and finding that they are getting headlines in India. Most of them are hardly known in their own countries especially now since they are retired from the game but in the Indian media space, they are pretty regular as whatever they put up on the public media finds itself in the media in India,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

We are now getting advice on team selection, says Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar also indirectly took a dig at a lot of former Pakistan cricketer who have been analysing the cricket in India on their respective Youtube channels and commenting about Indian cricket. He also noted that even the players with a not so great past have been giving their opinion.

“Even from our neighbours we are now getting advice about team selection and strategy and those with a not-so-savoury past are also getting their views into the Indian media space. That is the draw and power of cricket in India,” he further wrote.