Little Master as master blaster

UMPIRE'S POST

His columns take a partisan line, allegedly on behalf of "millions of Indians"

V S Naipaul, according to his biographer Patrick French, on various occasions said, or was said to have said, that Africa had no future, Islam was a calamity, France was fraudulent and interviewers were monkeys.

Rather than celebrate multiculturalism, he denounced it as "multi-culti", made malign jokes about people with darker skin than himself, blamed formerly oppressed nations for their continuing failure and attacked former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as a pirate who was imposing a plebeian culture on Britain.

In his Nobel acceptance speech, Naipaul said it was "a great tribute to both England, my home, and India, the home of my ancestors". There was no mention of Trinidad, where he began life. Asked why not, he said it might "encumber the tribute".

This provoked Barbadian writer George Lamming to suggest he was "playing ole mas", meaning he was masquerading or making trouble for his own entertainment, a Trinidadian trait. French says he noticed that when Naipaul was being rude or provocative in this way, he was full of glee.

Sunil Gavaskar, who scored tonnes of runs in the West Indies, seems to have contracted "ole mas". On television and in his columns, Gavaskar attacks Australia and England with relish, often clubbing them together.

In his latest tirade, Gavaskar says: "Gone are the days when two countries, England and Australia, had the veto power in international cricket, even though the dinosaurs may not open their eyes and see the reality... The cricketing world has found that India has no longer a diffident voice but a confident one that knows what is good for its cricket, and will strive to get it."

On the Harbhajan-Symonds fracas, he says: "When all the technology in the world was unable to prove that he had indeed said anything (to Andrew Symonds), these guys, especially those in Australia, were unable to stomach it."

On the day of the Twenty20 match in Australia, the innocuous Australian move of writing players' nicknames on shirts had Gavaskar fuming. Earlier, writing on Mike Procter's decision to ban Harbhajan for three Tests, Gavaskar wrote: "Millions of Indians want to know if it was a 'white man' taking the 'white man's' word against that of the 'brown man'."

Lawrence Booth, a Guardian columnist, has suggested that Gavaskar may not have forgiven Australia for Melbourne 1981 (when he had been apparently abused and given LBW and appeared to be forfeiting the match).

As a mediaperson, Gavaskar is free to air his views, but the column is his, not of "millions of Indians". Secondly, he is also the chairman of ICC's influential but independent cricket committee. There is a conflict of roles here.