Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has not taken kindly to Nasser Hussain’s claims that India were a ‘nice’ team before Sourav Ganguly took over as the team’s captain. Hussain, the former England captain, last week said during the Cricket Connected Show that Ganguly’s appointment as captain made India tougher, and that India began to win more matches overseas due to this shift in culture.

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“Nasser [Hussain] went on to say that earlier the team would be wishing the opposition good morning and smiling at them etc. See this perception: That if you are nice then you are weak. That unless you are in the face of the opposition, you are not tough,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day on Sunday.

“Is he suggesting that Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh to name just a few were not tough? That just because they went about their business without any chest-thumping, swearing, screaming and pumping their arms in obscene gestures, they were weak?”

Gavaskar was appointed captain of the Indian team in 1975-76 and ever since, some of Indian cricket’s all-time greats have been presented with the opportunity to lead the country, starting from Kapil Dev, G Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Kris Srikkanth, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar to name a few. Two years after Kapil led India to their maiden World Cup win 1983, under Gavaskar, India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985.

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Gavaskar slammed Hussain for his remark, and questioned Hussain’s knowledge of the Indian team before Ganguly was appointed captain in the year 2000.

“And what does he know of the toughness of the teams in the Seventies and Eighties, which won overseas as well as at home to make that statement? Yes, Ganguly was a top captain, taking over the reins at a most delicate time in Indian cricket, but to say that earlier teams were not tough is nonsense,” Gavaskar said.

“It’s about time the TV guys stopped using head-nodders when aspersions are cast on our cricket history and use people who will stand up and counter this bullying which actually consolidates the perception that we are too nice and therefore not tough.”