In the barren desert that is Indian cricket writing, rare is the piece that doesn’t say what the smart fan doesn’t already know, in words and sentences he hasn’t already read or heard before. And rarer still is the sapling that somebody, somewhere, doesn’t want planted.

But in a must-read piece in the latest issue of Outlook, G. Rajaraman gets the Delhi crowd to stick the knife deep and hard into the holiest cow grazing languidly on the lawns of Indian cricket, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. And what a pleasurable sound it makes.

The occasion is the monumental cock-up over the selection of the next coach of the Indian team, in the selection committee of which Sunny bhai was an honourable member.

# Ashok Malhotra wonders why Gavaskar, such a xenophobic patriot when it suits him, couldn’t come up with any Indian name other than that of the hapless John Emburey after he had manoeuvred to get Dav Whatmore out of the way.

# Bishen Singh Bedi says Gavaskar thinks he is bigger than the game. “He wants the glamour, the position, and if there are any financial gains, so much the better. But he doesn’t want any accountability. He’s always liked power without accountability… I can’t forget the time he once told a team meeting, ‘The day I stop thinking of money, I will stagnate.”

# Mukul Kesavan: “I wonder whether Gavaskar recognises that there’s a conflict of interest given the various hats he wears: as media man and as member of the committee to pick the next coach.”

# Rajdeep Sardesai: “Cricket administration… is more a distraction for him than a commitment.”

# S.K. Sham (Bombay journalist): He has a huge ego.

Read the full story: Too many dot balls

Also read: Gavaskar: most petulant cricketer ever?

With experts like these, god save the fans