Gautam Gambhir unavailable for third Test

Sri Lanka in India 2009-10
Gautam Gambhir unavailable for third Test
Cricinfo staff

November 27, 2009

Text size: A | A India will be without the services of opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, who will be attending his sister's wedding, for the third Test against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Gambhir has been in prime form in this series with centuries in each of the two Tests.

Gambhir's spot is likely to be taken by M Vijay, the Tamil Nadu opener. Vijay made his debut against Australia in Nagpur last year, when Gambhir was banned for a Test for an altercation with Shane Watson. The rest of the squad, which was initially picked for the first two Tests, has been retained with no additional replacements. The final Test of the series begins at the Brabourne Stadium on December 2.

India squad for third Test: MS Dhoni (capt), Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Virender Sehwag, Amit Mishra, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, S Badrinath.

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http://www.cricinfo.com/indvsl2009/...ory/436827.html

Pretty weak excuse tbh.

Give him a break, its his sisters wedding. Family should take priority, especially on such an occasion.

Its a wedding, not a funeral.

I would have done the same. I will play many tests in my life but my sister's marriage is once in my life. Family first.

Yes, his sisters. Happens once in your lifetime (hopefully )

Would be easier to reschedule the funeral by a day or two Garuda

^ and yes harisj, masha'Allah next year

Lol mubarkaan. I hope your brother doesn't skip it for a test match!

I guess you are from Pakistan and should be knowing how the date for marriages are scheduled. Don't wanna argue just for the sake of it.

Smacks of arrogance.

No Aussie would get away with that.

Well a test cap, or in fact any test match, is probably more important to Aussies than their own marriage.

Would be more important to the wife!!

i think in India they look at stars and stuuf to find wedding dates.
Else they could have schdled the wedding after the Test...................... hence you won't see this excuse in any other country. Maybe in SL they would do same.

Weddings come first because the food is so awesome....I would head directly to the Dahi bhalles, pani puri and gulab jamuns.

I don't think it's a weak excuse. What do you guys think he should've done? Missed out on his SISTERS wedding?

If series was 1 all to decide number 1 in the world with one game to play?

and if that is the last game of cricket to be played anywhere on planet earth, the winner becoming champion for eternity.

Yep our boys would be playing and Steve Bucknor would be umpire.

Your boys might be at sister's wedding or filming Pepsi commercial

With Bucknor umpiring it will make no difference to the result if they play or do other useful things.

While Aussie cricketers missing matches to attend the birth of their child may not be common, it is not very very rare either.

Gilchrist and Clark have missed matches. McDonald missed a part of Ashes tour.



Clark missed a test in Bangladesh but was in the team for the Ashes the following summer.




May be. But a sister's wedding is a very very big deal in Indian society. Most Indians won't be construe Gambhir missing a match to attend the wedding as arrogance and an instance of "players doing what ever they like".

But they will get away for their girlfriend's Dad not feeling well!

Sky Sports taking the pi55 out of Gambhir - esp Charles Colville.

Basic ignorance & naievity - he keeps saying 'and an extraordinary story breaking from the Indian camp'

If I was Indian, I'd be contacting Sky asap and complaining.

Saying that, Bumble did reply by saying that it wasnt such a big deal that he was going to a wedding

In South Asian culture, a brother or sister's wedding is akin to the birth of a child when it comes to momentous occasions so you can hardly blame him for taking this step. If Aussies and English players can miss matches when their wives give birth why can't Gambhir do this?

lol

Its all about local knowledge or the lack of it.

It's a cultural thing I guess... like RA's ignorant post on this thread (not that he needs a reason to show ignorance, but I am giving him the benefit of doubt here).

Family should always come first

I'll be honest - I didnt know about all this relying on starsigns and stuff for weddings - and I dont believe in any of that. Seems bizarre, but thats not the issue. I do know that a lot of importance is placed in these charts - so GAmbhir misses out - but its not like he will be penalised, because I guess all the Indian team probably believe in this stuff - and the selectors...and fans.

So, they might be uproar if GAmbhir missed his sister's wedding and played the game!!!

I am sure he would have known it before the series started so why announce now and not 2 matches ago.

Why is this being made a big deal? Not here but at cricinfo/media

Like Illyas and Farhat? Or Miandad and Faisal. Why do we critisize there without any proof and it is a family matter

We wouldn't want to emulate western family values now..go for it , gambhu !

Next thread I see coming will be in Time Pass:
Recommend Mehndi/Wedding songs

Patel is available. He also plays in the best tournament in the world. Can keep and play as opener
http://www.cricinfo.com/india/conte...object=6;page=2

I missed my sister's wedding due to unavoidable circumstances, even to this day I feel miserable. Missing your sister's wedding is a big big deal in India.

Not a big deal really... the guys has just been amassing so many runs lately that hopefully this break will screw up his concentration and mess up his form for eternity...


there's for hoping

I'm not into star signs and Astrology either - in fact consider it a load of bunk. But if someone does then he should be given the freedom to exercise his belief just like it was okay for a player to miss out on international cricket because his girlfriend's Dad was not feeling well.... the problem is morons like RA trying to preach morality and sense of duty!

yes i agree give him a break...i dont see any prob with him leaving the team to attend his sis wedding ..

also keep in mind there is Mahurat for hindu's wedding and maybe coz of that they can't change the date or something..

totally understandable...one should respect his decision to skip...its not like he wont get another chance to play test match...

Good to see you have the brains to post without insulting other people.

I just commented that it was strange - and there was some interesting discussion from the intelligent Indian fans - which you are not one of.

Ahem he died. You accuse me of ignorance eh?

He has 1 sister and shes more important to him than cricket.

So lets have a list of of Acceptable Aussie Reasons starting with croc hunting for missing cricket.

I think it depends on the relationship. We don't know the level of emotional attachment between the siblings. If he feels so much for her, he should be attending the wedding. He has decided it already, so we can safely say that his sister matters a lot for him. Even if he is forced to play, I don't think he will be able to play with a healthy mind. Besides, I am sure that the decision has been collectively taken by the team think tank where they must have assured him to ahead for the marriage. As much as I know Dhoni, he would be the first person to persuade him not to miss the marriage if he does not want to.

And was Clarke some doctor who was supposed to save him?

What's the problem, really? It's his sister's marriage.

I read he wanted to fly out for the wedding night and rejoin the team on 2nd day , but BCCI dint allow & rightly so .

Right I am not bothering to respond to your posts anymore. Grow up.

To the post above, this is an interesting situation where the cultural thing comes into it - from my posts and the English media you can see we consider it a bit strange.

The Indian posters (aside from tool cheerleader) have generally come back with "why is this strange?" which I guess goes to show the way cricket brings people of different cultures together and helps them learn more about the world all of us live in.

I still query whether he would have skipped the match if India were playing Pakistan and it was the third Test with the score 1-1. And GG was having a run of bad form.

different things .. if he was in bad form people would have been calling for his head and mostly he would have been dropped anyway

if he was in good form -- again difficult to say because when pakistan and india come together in an equation all sanities are lost.

the one good thing would be we would play vijay (he is quite solid and i hope he does reasonably well)

had we already been 2-0 up i would have rested laxman/tendulkar/dravid and played another youngster pujara ... he is earmarked as dravids replacement .. same temperament same hunger for runs and non flashy but super solid

Don't worry guys! India got enough bench strength at least in batting dept.

Vijay goes alright - was it him who played against us or was it Kohli in the Test? I know one of them did well in the warm up game and the other in the Test but can't remember which.

Pujara should be given a go soon. From outsider's perspective the YUVI, Raina, Sharma etc are not good enough - mentally. The younger Indian batsmen ie Vijay are better Test players from what I have seen. Think the attention has gone to a few of the others Uthappa, YUVI etc heads

vijay in test , kohli in warm up ...

yuvi seems to be improving so i would hold my judgement ..

raina is a no 6 batsmen not good enough to bat above that

sharma has the technique but no brains .. i dont know why he usually does well in domestic or a tours

other folks you can look up are

abhinav mukund (like sehwag left handed but with a much tighter technique age =19 avg in domestic around 56)

kohli (ok but very impetuous at times ... kinda reminds me of clarke at young age quite capable to throw it away ... very good technique .. he handled the thunderbolts of roach very well)

then others who mostly wont make it shikar dhawan , badrinath (28 too old ..indian version of hodge played at wrong time)

in before RA starts laughing.....

Oh.... now we have someone talking about cultures! Where the frack was this understanding of cultures when you came out with a chip on your shoulder about an Aussie not getting away with it? The "Aussie way" is not the only way people live their life and is by no means the "correct" way either - I hope you can clean up your remaining brain cells to imprint that message.

Please stop. Your embarrassing yourself, pathetic poster.

Obviously a little what RA said was in jest. But your too blind to see it.

Consider a slightly different situation. Most men want to be with their partners when they are delivering babies, though it is debatable if they add any value other than emotinal support. If a test cricketer missed a routine test with his team leading, most teams and supporters will understand.

Will they do the same if it is do or die game, they may or may not.

Will the cricketer himself do it if it was sure to result in a total loss of his spot and a life of penury, probably not.

Family should always come first. Cricket matches go on and on, but siblings only get married once. It's a valid reason to skip, especially since its of his sister's.

Gambhir knows how good he is, so he doesn't have to worry.