This letter is written expressing total dissatisfaction about the injustice meted out to Gautham Gambhir, who had been India’s most prolific scorer in Tests and ODI’s during the past one year. He in fact scored the most number of runs by an individual batsman in the Commonwealth Bank sponsored tri-nation series early this year, involving hosts Australia, India and Sri Lanka

Gambhir is a calm and collected cricketer obeying the correct ethics and one who hates to get involved in controversies on the field. I saw the incident under reference over and over and again in the ‘Neo Sports’ channel. It was shown in the first instance and several times over the ‘playback’ packages.

Shane Watson, a relatively newcomer to the Australian squad and got the opportunity of playing for Australia as Andrew Symonds was banned on disciplinary grounds. From what I have seen about him, he dislikes when scored off his bowling. He always has the habit of staring at the batsmen, when runs are scored off his bowling.

In this incident, which occurred during the third Test when Gambhir straight drove Watson, who stood on the path of the batsman, deliberately obstructing him instead of allowing him to take his run. As Watson saw him turning for the second run, he further obstructed his way in order to make it more difficult.

Watson was standing just a few yards from the popping crease, which Gambhir did not observe. On his way for the second run, he bounced into Watson where his right shoulder shaved Watson’s chest, which was not at all done intentionally and did not hurt the bowler.

But the match referee accused Gambhir of an offence. Watson got off scot-free while Gambhir was handed a one Test ban by the match referee Chris Broad.

The appeal made by the BCCI against the ban was rejected by the ICC. It was a pity, as this happened at a time when the batsman was in good nick. The punishment was definitely too harsh and Match Referees should be impartial when such decisions are made.