Sunil Gavaskar: Bazball is more ‘couldn’t care less’ cricket than fearless cricket

Every time a captain, coach or selection committee is changed, the expectation is that there will be fresh ideas, new initiatives and better results. The change invariably happens when the term of the coaching staff or the selection committee is over, and a new one is to be chosen.

England’s performances in most sports are a huge let-down when set against the write-ups their teams receive from people who have hardly, if ever, played any sport at the highest level. The disappointment, therefore, is far greater when the teams show that they are more paper tigers than real ones.

England’s capitulation to Australia by a 4–1 margin was, therefore, not really a surprise for the non-English. It is extremely tough for visiting teams to win a Test series anywhere, especially in Australia and India. India themselves, however, were beaten comprehensively by New Zealand a couple of years ago and by South Africa late last year.

While pitches in India are routinely criticised as dust bowls by the old powers, there is barely a word about the life-and-limb-threatening trampoline bounce in Australia or the cow-grazing fields that pass for pitches in England. That the aim is to find fault with Indian cricket is clear from the firestorm over Indian pitches, with some former players even creating memes ridiculing the groundsmen, while at the same time remaining silent about similar or even worse pitches in Pakistan and other countries on the subcontinent. That they will not criticise each other’s pitches is not a surprise because, while they are fierce rivals on the field, off it, they are united in trying to curb the rise of India as a cricketing superpower.

Brendon McCullum, who was appointed England coach a couple of years back, was a brilliant cricketer, and the BCCI should be forever indebted to him for getting the IPL off to such a rousing start with a sixer-studded 158 in the first-ever match of the league. It was just the kind of innings that was needed to get the sceptics to sit up and take notice of the new product in Indian cricket. That the IPL today ranks among the top four sporting properties in the world owes much to that knock, which helped it take off vertically. As the old saying goes, ‘well begun is half done’. After that season, the BCCI smartly multiplied the value of the IPL, and it is today the making of many cricketers and a life-saver for players who otherwise would have been lost to the game.

McCullum brought the same freshness to England’s cricket, and that took the rest of the cricketing world by surprise. Gone was the dreary, dull cricket they played, and suddenly, the opposition did not know how to counter it. However, as with so-called mystery bowlers, the surprise wore off. Once teams realised that England had little answer whenever the ball deviated, provided the pitches were not flat, the problems became evident. With their media making excuses for them about pitches when they were overseas, the batters refused to change their approach and bat according to the situation. With the management also ignoring some of the unforgivable and irresponsible shots played by the batters, the fear of being left out simply is not there. Valuing playing for your country and putting a minimum price of a century on your wicket is something only the great Joe Root does. The others could not be bothered, as they knew they were unlikely to be left out of the squad.

What the media calls fearless cricket today often looks more like couldn’t-care-less cricket. With the guarantee of a central contract and the various T20 leagues around the cricketing world, there is no worry about how to put food on the table, which was the case when these facilities were not there and losing a Test place meant going back to mundane first-class cricket, where one hardly earned enough, let alone saved for a rainy day.

This is not to begrudge the current cricketer at all. Far from it. As Sir Don Bradman said, it should be the endeavour of every cricketer to try and leave the game in a better place than when he found it. So, when the modern cricketer makes good money, it is a great thing, as it encourages and draws more youngsters to the game. That is why it is disappointing when some forget their responsibility to the game and play reckless cricket, letting their team and country down. Winning and losing are part of sport, but the effort has to be wholehearted.

How many in the England team that lost the Ashes series can put their hands on their hearts and say that they gave it everything, not just physically but, more crucially, temperamentally, in the series? You tell me.

Published on Jan 12, 2026