"Jai (ML Jaisimha) would have been happy"
Virat Kohli’s Indian squad is the best team in Indian cricket history, according to cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar.
Gavaskar’s comments came while delivering the inaugural lecture at the ML Jaisimha Sports Foundation on Monday, March 29, 2021.
According to Gavaskar, Jaisimha would have been pleased with the progress of the current Indian team.
The former batsman has also backed Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s view on the ‘soft signal’ rule.
Singing the Indian side’s praises in his inaugural lecture, Sunil Gavaskar said:
“This team faced unprecedented situations. Jai (ML Jaisimha) would have been happy with the way the Indian teams played.
“The way they took it from the opposition, Jai himself would have done that.”
Gavaskar spoke of his emotional connection with ML Jaisimha, before revealing some revisions in match rules that he wants to implement in the future.
Discussing the distance of boundaries, Gavaskar said:
“Today with kinds of bats available for the players and with the kind of power they have today (physical conditioning) and even mishit goes for a six.
“If only boundaries are pushed little further. Today the power-hitting of the boys, slightly built, are hitting into the crowds.
“Therefore make it level for the bowlers and make the boundaries little further.”
Gavaskar also touched on other topics during his lecture, such as the bouncer rule, leg byes and time-wasting tactics.
He said:
“Today despite the batsmen sitting in the dug-out, not in the change room, every time a batsman is out an allowance of two minutes is given.
“I believe the dug-out is so close and I think at the best give one-minute allowance instead of two-minute allowance.”
As well as this, Sunil Gavaskar appears to agree with Virat Kohli’s view on ‘soft signal’.
According to Gavaskar, the soft signal was to know what the on-field umpire was asking the third umpire.
He said:
“For the IPL, soft signals would not be there.
“Whatever happens in ICC level, it is first experimented at the domestic level before it becomes an ICC playing condition.
“This is what ICC has asked BCCI to experiment without soft signal (in IPL). Let us see how it goes.
“If there is a positive response, there could be then the ICC may take a call in the annual meeting.”
Sunil Gavaskar also said that, as an old-fashioned cricketer, he was not in favour of the Decision Review System (DRS) in the beginning.
However, he believes that “players asking for a replay is good for television”.
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