Dubai: Sandeep Patil, who was hailed as one of India’s finest hard-hitting middle order batsmen before he went on to become a coach and Indian team chief selector, is as dashing as his batting style when speaking on cricketing matters. He opened up on some of the news relating to the Indian team that has made headlines recently while in Dubai in a new role as brand ambassador of India’s indoor cricket teams that are playing in the ongoing World Indoor Cricket Federation World Cup.
Asked whether Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh will go on to play the 2019 World Cup, Patil replied: “It’s wrong to predict who all will go on to play in the 2019 World Cup. Two years from now is a long period and the kind of injuries we see nowadays, there is too much of workload on each player. What matters today is fitness and form. Yuvraj is God’s gift and I will always remain an ardent fan of Yuvraj, but he has to put runs on the board and prove his fitness. He has to be looked after by the professionals who are working with the Indian team. So it will be wrong to say what is going to happen to Dhoni and Yuvraj, and even others.”
Patil also said he does not believe in comparing top cricketers like Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. “It is difficult to say what is the difference between [Sunil] Gavaskar and Tendukar and the difference between Tendulkar and Kohli or Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They are all special. We should be proud that we had players like Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. They are champions of the era and I consider myself lucky to have got chance to be with them as India A team coach, as India team coach and Director of National Cricket Academy.”
Patil, who once smashed England pacer Bob Willis for six boundaries in one over and even took on pacers like Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson to crack centuries in Australia, was modest when asked how he felt about being a genuine hard hitter in the Indian team at a time when there were few of his ilk around. “When you don’t have a technique, you throw the bat at the ball. I was lucky that I succeeded by throwing the bat at the ball and got few runs. I don’t like to compare but today there is tremendous improvement in focus and awareness than the cricket in sixties and eighties. If we had the kind of infrastructure, facilities and coaches, we could have seen a different Gavaskar and even Kapil Dev but there is no ifs and buts in cricket. Also, I was not the only one who hit hard shots. Kapil and Krishnamachari Srikkant were better hitters than me. Even Jimmy [Mohinder Amarnath] and Dilip Vengsarkar were not considered hard-hitting batsmen, but they were consistent. It’s not just the hard hitting that matters, you have to look at the consistency and runs you accumulate too.”
Patil said he believes that even underdogs can beat the top teams if they only enjoy the game. In fact, that was the message he passed on to the India indoor team players as well. “In 1983 World Cup, India was marked at the bottom to great teams like West Indies, Australia, England and New Zealand. We went on to win the World Cup. I believe that if you can enjoy the game and play the game in the right spirit, you can beat anyone. I have told the Indian indoor team players that it is not a good feeling to beat a bottom team but it is a great feeling to beat the best. Australians have dominated indoor World Cup for nine years and the time has come to see the change at the top.”
