Sachin Tendulkar And James Anderson Absent At Trophy Ceremony: Where Were Cricket’s Greatest?

India and England drew their five match Test series on a dramatic 2-2 tie, sharing the newly named Anderson Tendulkar Trophy in an extremely tight six run win by India on the fifth day of play at The Oval. Whereas there may be their names on the trophy, neither of the legends (Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson) was present in the last presentation, and this was a major oversight that has sparked off the floodgates of criticism.

Why were both of them absent?

Both legends were in attendance at the official unveiling of the trophy in June though they conspicuously missed the moment that Shubman Gill of India and Ben Stokes of England posed with the silverware at the mouth watering climax. And nor were there any Pataudi family members, either, though the Pataudi Medal of Excellence had gone to Gill, a snub that has proved pointedly controversial in cricketing circles.

This contentious stand is followed by the deliberation over the renaming of the customary Pataudi Trophy by ICC in honour of the two test greats, an inaugural step which in turn gained its own share of criticism particularly when legendary names such as Sunil Gavaskar criticized the order of the naming of the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy.

At the current state of affairs, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has not provided any reason as to why neither Anderson nor Tendulkar were not present during the presentation ceremony. Not only the fans, pundits and even cricketing icons had asked the ECB to explain why such omissions had been made, did they make any deliberate exclusions or just an oversight.
Amid the still emotional state produced by one of the most electrifying series in recent history, with heroics supplied by Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Shubman Gill among others, this controversy appears ready to upstage a moment that otherwise is meant to celebrate two legends of the game.

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