From: ji@doc.ic.ac.uk (Jacob Ignatius)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Interview with Sunil Gavaskar
Date: 27 Jan 1993 12:01:24 -0000
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: oak2.doc.ic.ac.uk
Keywords: From India Today


"The India cap is easy"


Q: IS THIS TEAM SIMPLY NOT WORLD CLASS?

A: Talent and ability do not translate into results. These boys lack the hunger
   for success, the hunger to become great players. For years Indian team have
   had players, in the touring sides, who are quite happy if they are not picked
   for the final eleven. The attitude to fight is lacking, a pride that you
   are among the 11 representing 90 crore people.


Q: WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED?

A: Because players take their places for granted. Some have not been producing
   continuously. On the other hand people who are producing, trying their best,
   are not big heroes back home. For instance, Amre is no glamour boy. But he
   struggled for his place in the 16 and then for his place in the 11. The
   problem arises when the India cap comes too easily. It has been the bane
   of the Indian cricket lately.


Q: WASN'T THE WHOLE IDEA TO BRING IN YOUTH?

A: Now Sachin is young yet he tries. But some people seem to be lacking in
   cricketing intelligence. Even the elementary sense of picking up and
   throwing, going back to the stumps, backing up, is just not there. You have
   to bloody well make sure they earn their places, call them across and say
   this is it. In fact the cricket manager could have the power to send people
   home.


Q: SO YOU SUGGEST A CRICKET MANAGER WITH REAL POWERS.

A: Yes, you need a long-term manager who will be the boss on a tour, who can
   plan without feeling the pressures of captaincy. We have not been getting
   managers who win the respect of the team. Another problem is board officials
   coming as managers. Some are socially embarrassing and lower the team's
   morale. I am not saying we need black-tie types, but we can do without 
   managers with embarrassing behaviour or a drink problem.


Q: HOW SHOULD DOMESTIC CRICKET BE RESTRUCTURED?

A: First class cricket in India has to be made real first class. There could be
   separate leagues for weaker and stronger teams. The Ranji knock-out round
   could be made a league. We also must get back to making university cricket
   the basic nursery. The under-16 and under-19 selection committees have to be
   your best selection committees. Today, do you even know the names of these
   selectors?


Q: HAS THE EXPERIMENT TO CREATE AN INDIAN TEAM OF THE '90S WORKED?

A: I think whoever called it the team of the '90s had spoken too soon. You can't
   chop and change just for the sake of turning things over. Many youngsters in
   this team would have flowered in the company of veterans like Jimmy(Amarnath)
   and Vengsarkar. I saw this team getting simply verbalised out of the game in
   Australia. When a bowler swears at you, or fielders clap derisively, you
   shouldn't glare back or get distracted. You turn your back and continue 
   batting. That's what the seniors would have taught these young stars.


Q: BUT YOU SEEM PARTICULARLY DISAPPOINTED WITH MANJREKAR.

A: His game is drifting at the moment. He is too wrapped up in technique, in
   trying to live up to the image of a technically correct batsman. You should
   make technique your slave and not the other way round.


Q: SO WHERE SHOULD WE BEGIN CHANGING?

A: Right from the board. They are not all bad people. They are just outdated in
   their thinking. We cannot have experience at the expense of contemporary
   thinking. Today cricket mangers have to know about sponsorships and playing
   conditions as they are an integral part of the way cricket is played today. We
   can no longer afford to have a board run by officials who continue forever on
   the basis of 'till death do us part.