Cricket: Batting great poor vintage - coach

England coach Duncan Fletcher gave Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar a short, sharp send-off yesterday when asked to respond to Gavaskar's labelling England "champion whingers".

Fletcher was unimpressed by Gavaskar's comments in a column in the Hindustan Times. Gavaskar, who scored 10,122 runs in 125 tests, wrote of England during their just-completed tour of India: "Trust the champion whingers of the world to only moan about what affects them and not utter a word when it benefits them.

"The English skipper [Nasser Hussain] has obliquely referred to the decisions that have gone against his team as the reasons for his team's defeat, but when you look at the decisions that went in his side's favour there has not even been a beep."

Fletcher was concise with his response.

Replied Fletcher: "I've got two things to say, first, he's on the International Cricket Council panel and he's meant to have an unbiased opinion. Second, it's very, very sad when a good wine goes sour."

- NZPA