The legendary Sunil Manohar Gavaskar has always blazed a trail for Indian sport. Be it the first to smash the 10,000-run barrier in Tests or the first to score 30 Test hundreds.
Gavaskar, who was recently named Brand Ambassador of the UAE-based Danube Buildmart, was also among the first Indian sportsmen to prominently endorse products.
The Indian superstar, 62, took some time out from his busy schedule while in Dubai for the Danube announcement and spoke to Sport360° on various issues from the state of the Indian cricket at present towhy the Indian Premier League is a good thing for world cricket.
Indian cricket…what has really happened in the last year or so? Why have they lost their No1 ranking in the world?
I think it is just a case of India not playing to their strength, which is their batting. It is very unusual that India’s best batsmen have not clicked together. If you look at it, whenever India have won, at least one bowler has done well, and at least two or three batsmen have batted well. I mean there are a couple of hundreds and the odd half century.
If you look at both the tours of England and Australia, only one batsman seemed to be getting the runs in each of the innings. That’s not how India have won their matches in the past.
What do you think about the possibility of an India-Pakistan series in the UAE? There are already talks of reviving the cricketing relations.
Well, there is a possbility but the likelihood of that happening for the next two years is very low indeed because of India’s tight international schedule. By that time, it could also happen that Pakistan will be playing at home.
As for the UAE, it is a terrific venue for cricket. The stadiums are absolutely top class and lately, we have also seen results coming through, which was not the case in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. There were a lot of drawn matches.
I’d love to see them playing each other again, be it in their own countries or in the UAE, but as I said, it will be very difficult over the next two years. Yes, there can be a lot of club-level or IPL kind of contacts, which would be a good start anyway.
Talking of the IPL, it seems to be everybody’s favourite whipping boy despite being a mega success. According to you, what are the biggest plus points to have come out of the IPL?
The biggest plus point for me is that India’s young players get to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the game – not only from their own country, but also superstars from overseas countries.
Having played with these experienced stars, the youngsters also learn how to handle pressure. Because of the short duration of the Twenty20 games, the IPL comes with its own unique pressures. Once you have learnt how to handle tough situations in 20 overs, it becomes much easier to handle the pressures of the longer versions of the game.
And I have always believed that at the highest level of international cricket, it is temperament that separates the men from the boys. There is another thing that has happened in cricket because of the IPL. It has managed to bring down the animosity between international teams.
The players from different countries are now sharing the dressing room and while they still have the same intensity when they play against each other, they are not creating ugly scenes that were becoming rather regular at the beginning of the century.
And a third positive is that the IPL, and T20 matches in general, has re-energised cricket. In 50-over ODIs, 300 is like a par score compared to 250 a few years back. In Test cricket, you see a lot more shots being played and runs scored at a faster pace, because of which there are more results.
I see a many more slower balls being bowled in Test matches now, and that is because of the influence of T20. So, there is a lot more variety in Test cricket and that is adding to the viewing pleasure of the fans.
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