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New Delhi: Asserting that India have become a superpower in world cricket, Sunil Gavaskar has given the game's traditional top teams Australia and England a hard pill to swallow, adding that the two nations can't come to grips with the fact.
"Gone are the days when two countries, England and Australia, had the veto power in international cricket, even though the dinosaurs, still trying to voice their prejudiced opinions in the media, may not open their eyes and see the reality," Gavaskar wrote in his column on Sunday.
Former India captain Gavaskar, who is also the chief of ICC's cricket committee, adds that India have shed the role of being a nation that is pushed around by others in cricketing matters.
"The cricketing world has found that India has no longer a diffident voice in the international cricketing community, but a confident one that knows what is good for its cricket, and will strive to get it," he says.
"What may have worried these people was the manner in which India defended its player Harbhajan Singh on the 'racist' allegation made against him. When all the technology in the world was unable to prove that he had indeed said anything, these guys, especially those in Australia, having got so used to getting it their way, were unable to stomach it."
India are currently ranked No. 2 in the Test rankings after a heated series against Australia away. India lost the Test series after a barrage of acrimonious contests, but came back strongly to beat the world champions to lift the Commonwealth Bank one-day tri-series.
Gavaskar also points out that Australian and British media had taken a strong objection to India's representative for the post of ICC's CEO, IS Bindra, although the former BCCI chief didn't get it. BCCI's current President Sharad Pawar is set to become ICC's president in 2010, before the World Cup comes back to the sub-continent in 2011, with India hosting the final.
"As soon as Mr Bindra's name was announced there were a flurry of articles in England and Australia that giving him the job would put too much power in India's hands," he said.
"Those worried of the prospect of India's hegemony were conveniently forgetting that only a few years back, there were two Australians at the top of the ICC. (Malcolm Gray was the President while Malcolm Speed was its chief executive).
"Once again, it is a misplaced belief that they are the only ones with honesty, integrity and have the welfare of the game at heart, while the 'sub-continentals' do not.
"Every controversy in international cricket has shown that no country has the monopoly on honesty and integrity, and so should not be looking down upon others.
"Still, it is a habit that is hard to get over, and so it is anathema to think that those who were the ruled can one day become the rulers."
