Former India captain and batting great Sunil Gavaskar expressed reservations about England using placards to send messages from the coaching staff to the captain during a match. England skipper Eoin Morgan could be seen communicating with the team's main analyst during their T20I series against South Africa and the 2019 World Cup winner later defended the move.
Morgan said that he had got the match referee's permission before going through with the move but Gavaskar questioned if the referee himself had discussed the matter with the International Cricket Council (ICC) before agreeing to it. "I would like to know if the match referee had confirmed this with the ICC? Did they ask ICC? Has the cricket committee of the ICC sanctioned this, we don't know this yet," said Gavaskar on the Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
"This is happening for the first time. We were told that this type of strategy was also used during Pakistan Super League and maybe this was the same person who adapted this technique who was an analyst there. But I don't believe this should be happening in cricket. The second thing that is worrisome is during the situation of a DRS (Decision Review System), would there be a code there as well to help with the decision of taking the DRS?"
Gavaskar said that he would prefer using the 12th man as a conduit if the dressing room wants to send him messages while captaining a team.
"Ideally, as a captain, I would not like this thing to happen. If I was the captain, I would say, look if you want to send a message about any field placing or a bowling change, then send the 12th man across with a bottle of water or anything... a way you can pass the message or the 12th man or the coach can pass the message to the boundary fielder," he said.