Gilly's bio insults Tendulkar 

Adam Gilchrist's published jibe at the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar is little more than a cynical marketing ploy, according to former Indian chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar.

Gilchrist ensured a wave of publicity for his forthcoming autobiography True Colours by taking the view in its pages that Tendulkar's honesty and sportsmanship were questionable, citing his changeable evidence during the Harbhajan Singh/Andrew Symonds affair.

While Gilchrist's words have naturally outraged sections of the Indian community, Vengsarkar said he believed the reasons for the claims were dubious.

"You have to write something sensational to sell a book," Vengsarkar told Indian local TV.

"I think it's a marketing strategy that Adam Gilchrist has adopted.

"Very unfortunate, but a fact."

In the book, Gilchrist refers to Tendulkar as the sort of player who would go missing when the Australians were looking to shake his hand after a victory.

Gilchrist also implied that Tendulkar had been quite loose with the truth in his evidence to the ICC hearing into Harbhajan's remark to Symonds, which was downgraded from racial vilification to abusive language after a backroom deal between the Indian and Australian boards.

"Tendulkar, who'd said at the first hearing that he hadn't been able to hear what Harbhajan had said - and he was a fair way away, up the other end, so I'm certain he was telling the truth - now supported Harbhajan's version that he hadn't called `Symo' a 'monkey' but instead a Hindi term of abuse that might sound like 'monkey' to Australian ears," Gilchrist wrote.

"The Indians got him off the hook when they, of all people, should have been treating the matter of racial vilification with the utmost seriousness."

A good barometer of local reaction to Gilchrist's claims was a piece in the highly regarded Hindustan Times newspaper.

The story starts off: "It's a book called True Colours but the Indian cricketing fraternity is likely to dub it a pack of lies.

"Adam Gilchrist, Australia's vice-captain during the turbulent events of Sydney early this year, has apparently done the unforgivable."