Sharjah: Legendary batsman Gundappa Vishwanath, a member of the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council, was thrilled at the tremendous crowd response for the matches in the UAE.
“I am a strong believer that cricket should be played in the right spirit and I am thrilled to see the spirit in the fans here,” he said during his visit.
Related to Sunil Gavaskar as the brother-in-law, ‘Vishy’ regaled the fans with his electrifying square cuts and late cuts in the 70’s and 80s. Though he played in only 25 One Day Internationals and was more of a Test batsman with 6,080 runs from his 91 Test matches and 14 centuries, he enjoyed the game in the IPL.
However, he could not ignore the invitation to visit Shyam Bhatia’s cricket museum on Sunday night, where he had visited with Gavaskar in the 80s. Vishwanath autographed a bat with his Test and ODI exploits embossed on it to be part of the museum. A former chairman of national selectors and ICC Match Referee himself, Vishwanath stressed on the need of producing quality bowlers for any form of cricket to be exciting — be it Twenty20, one-dayers or Tests.
“We need good bowlers and to produce world class bowler, they should be groomed from the age of 15,” said Vishwanath, who was one of the most sporting captains and recalled England’s Bob Taylor in the Golden Jubilee Test match in 1979-80 in Mumbai, a decision which cost him the match.
