Stuart Broad denies Sunil Gavaskar claim of preferential treatment

The England all-rounder Stuart Broad has denied the former India captain Sunil Gavaskar's claim that he gets preferential treatment because his father, Chris, is an International Cricket Council match referee. "I get treated like everyone else," Broad said, as England prepared for the third Test against South Africa, which begins at Newlands on Sunday.

Writing in an Indian newspaper, Gavaskar said: "Stuart's father Chris is one of [the] ICC's match referees and so the umpires are reluctant to make a complaint against the youngster. Remember the umpires and match referees are used to hanging out together in the evenings since they are in a foreign country and so forge a good relationship and obviously the umpires are not looking to spoil that by citing the young Broad for a violation of the code of conduct."

The former England captains Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain have been critical of Broad's behaviour in South Africa. In the first Test, at Centurion last month, Broad confronted the umpires when he was given out after a delayed decision by the South Africa players to call for the new review system.

Broad said: "I think a lot was made of the incident at Centurion. We were told that just a few seconds would be allowed for referrals and I thought 45 or 35 was quite a long time. But it was a very relaxed conversation with me just asking whether they were sure they didn't get a signal [from the dressing room].

"There were no raised voices or swearwords or anything like that but I probably should have waited for the tea interval to have that little chat rather than out on the field where everyone could see it."

Broad admitted that he expects to be in trouble in the future.

"I am sure that when the time comes – as I'm sure it will unless I get unbelievably better – that I get in a little bit of trouble. But I am sure I will get treated the same as everybody else in the rest of the world.

"They [the match referees] are all grown men. I think if I have done something wrong they will let me know about it. My youthful exuberance sometimes gets the better of me, but hopefully not to the extent of hitting my stumps down or anything like that." That was a reference to the Bicentennial Test in Sydney in 1988, in which his father used his bat to knock over the wicket.

The England captain, Andrew Strauss, said this week: "Broady is a very strong character. He sticks up for what he believes in, and sometimes that means he ruffles a few feathers."

Is he jumping the queue at the 'all you can tamper' buffet?

I can't see that Broad did anything wrong, it was Smith who was aided by technology and it was he who waited until he got the signal from upstairs to refer. And as for the ball tampering, he's well over six foot and he'd been in the field all day in temperatures in the 30's, is he going to bend over and pick up the ball every time?

Storm in a darjeeling cup I'm afraid, Mr Gavaskar..

Despite what he achieved in cricket, Mr Gavaskar is a far more bitter blend than a darjeeling.