Much like un the past, the Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar successfully kept himself out of falling in any controversy. During the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, the former skipper was asked to share his thoughts on the Lodha Panel Recommendations on BCCI and guess what? Sachin did not find it wise enough to answer, so he smiled and remain mum on it.
However, the right-handed batsman backed his board by saying that the cricket’s governing body in India ‘has done a lot for the country’.
My personal feeling is that when I was growing up, I got a lot of support from the BCCI. The BCCI and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) arranged a lot of camps.
Pressing on the fact that BCCI has helped the state cricket also, Sachin said he suggested MCA have a 14 per side tournament in school cricket last year meant that 1800 more children’s across the city got to play competitive cricket.
I gave a suggestion to MCA on school cricket and they implemented. BCCI has supported and taken care of the players and given us ample opportunity to grow. But it doesn’t stop at this. Not everything is perfect but things can improve
The batting maestro felt that the mentality of the youngsters has changed due to T20 cricket. The player who itself has around 16,000 runs in Tests says the technology has a role to play in shifting the mindset. Further, he admitted that during his days, everyone used to wake up to watch Test cricket and kids nowadays wake up to watch the T20 format.
“The mindset of the people is changing. Twenty20s and technology have changed that mindset. When I was growing up, we were watching Tests and now kids watch T20,” Tendulkar was quoted as saying.
Sachin, who took retirement in November 2014 said he did not miss being on the field even after stepping on it for 24 long years. He mentioned that freedom of living his life on his terms is a beautiful too.
The 43-year-old also came up with an eyebrow-raising plan for the BCCI to execute if they intend so. He said that in the Ranji games there should be two wickets in a match, one a green top and other a rank-turner. Explaining this, he said this formula will prepare the young crop of cricketers for the overseas assignments.
Let us have the first innings on a green top with kookaburra balls which would give openers a challenge. Even bowlers will have something. Our spinners will also learn how to bowl with kookaburra on green tops
He then added, “Now let there be a pitch adjacent to the green top which would be a rank-turner. Now the second innings will be played on that track with the SG Test ball which would also help our batsmen play against quality spin bowling. We have been too focused on playing pace in overseas conditions but we should not forget how to play spin bowling”.