Different rules for different players: Gavaskar attacks Kohli over paternity leave

Dubai - Kohli boarded a long-haul flight following the debacle in the pink-ball Test, which India lost by eight wickets, after a horrendous batting collapse

The debate rages on. The cricketing world has been divided on the subject of Virat Kohli’s paternity leave with the Indian captain returning home from Australia to be at the birth of his first child.

And while a lot of them, including Aussie batsman Steve Smith, have lauded the 32-year-old for his decision to be with his wife, Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma, after the first Test in Adelaide, many have questioned it.

Many of them have been critical and have gone as far as to say that leading and playing for India is like serving the country, and that he should have stayed back Down Under.

Kohli boarded a long-haul flight following the debacle in the pink-ball Test, which India lost by eight wickets, after a horrendous batting collapse. He is set to miss the remainder of the Test series which involves three more matches. The Boxing Day Test in Melbourne begins on Saturday.

And on Thursday, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar made a scathing attack saying that there were different rules for different players.

“Another player who will wonder about the rules but, of course, can’t make any noise about it as he is a newcomer. It is T. Natarajan. The left-arm yorker specialist who made an impressive debut in the T20 and had Hardik Pandya gallantly offering to share the man of the T20 series prize with him had become a father for the first time even as the IPL playoffs were going on. He was taken to Australia directly from the UAE and then looking at his brilliant performances, he was asked to stay on for the Test series but not as a part of the team but as a net bowler. Imagine that,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.

“A match winner, albeit in another format, being asked to be a net bowler. He will thus return home only after the series ends in the third week of January and get to see his daughter for the first time then. And there is the captain going back after the first Test for the birth of his first child. That’s Indian cricket. Different rules for different people. If you don’t believe me, ask Ravi Ashwin and T. Natarajan,” he added.

There have been various instances of Indian captains staying back on tour despite the birth of their children.

MS Dhoni, who was leading the team on their Australian tour ahead of the 2015 World Cup, stayed back despite the birth of his daughter Ziva.

When he was asked if he had wished to fly back, Dhoni said: “Not really. As of now, I’m on national duties so I think everything else can wait. The World Cup is a very important campaign.”

Gavaskar himself, under whom the current Test series is named (Border-Gavaskar Trophy) was on tour in New Zealand when his son Rohan was born. He then travelled to the West Indies with the team for another tour and only got to see his son two-and-a-half months later.

Sourav Ganguly was leading India in South Africa in 2001 when his daughter Sana was born. He got to see her only after a month.

james@khaleejtimes.com