‘My favourite is Virat, maybe because of his leadership’
MUMBAI: The present generation has four players battling for the mantle of the best batsman in the world – Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson. For Viv Richards, this isn’t a familiar situation. He never knew what competition meant. As, with 8,540 runs in 121 Tests at an average of 50.23, including 24 centuries, he was the King.
In Mumbai for a short visit, he spoke to HT. Excerpts:
Did you enjoy the India vs Australia series?
I loved it. The folks who said it was too confrontational — I don’t think it was the first, it is not going to be the last. (But) when you have anything said where someone’s race comes into play, I don’t think that is good for the game. But confrontation and competitiveness nothing is wrong with that.
Sometimes you can say things to upset the rhythm of batsmen, a particular player, but as sportsmen we have an obligation to compete as hard as we can, but if we use words which are going to be derogatory to someone’s race then that it should be looked at in a very severe manner.
Did Australia manage to upset the rhythm of Virat Kohli?
I don’t think so. I just believe that regardless of whoever you are as a player, there are times when you are going to have your bad periods. Let us make some comparisons to when he was in Australia — he scored four centuries out of five games. That has to be taken into consideration. This was his period of time where I think the bat failed him, but what stood out more than anything else is that he didn’t allow that to get into his way of captaincy.
What would be your advice to Virat, how to balance personal performance with captaincy?
To be fair, it would be the first we have seen failures on a consistent basis (of Virat). There is going to be a time when you fail and that is when other members of your team can step up, and we have seen that. Cheteshwar Pujara and KL Rahul came to the party and that is why it’s such a great team sport, your captain can fail and still be a strong leader. And the guys have an enormous amount of respect for him.
We have Virat, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson vying to be the best batsman in the world. Who’s your favourite?
It’s tough to separate; they are folks that I like. I like Virat because of his confrontational style, and (the way he) defends his right if any nasty thing comes his way. All the other guys in that category are very good players, players that I admire, but sometimes we have our favourites and my favourite is Virat, just maybe because of his leadership and plus when he gets going as a batsman, he is as good as any.
You were part of the greatest team in history, does this Indian team, now No 1 in ICC rankings, have the potential to establish an aura like the great teams?
They do have. But I don’t think they are there yet. The next challenge will be to go to England and beat them, the way you demoralised England at home. In the same way go to Australia and get the job done as well. There is potential for that to happen, (but) until that happens we all will be waiting. This is the first time that India players are skipping the IPL after playing Tests with injuries. Does it send the right signals? Yeah, it does, especially this series. There is still such an appetite for Tests. No disrespect to the IPL, but it is the game (Test) in its purest form, which to me helps sort the men out from the boys.
You have seen IPL at close quarters, what is good about it, what are its negative impacts?
It’s not just the IPL, but the T20 tournaments around the world if we can just modify how much is played. Sometimes, you can kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Let’s try and have it in reasonable proportions, rather than overkill and oversell. And, one of the things that would help to do that is if you cannot do this, you cannot do that. By that, I mean the IPL. The money that’s involved. If we can create space where individuals can be part of representing their countries and you can create a bigger pool of players for T20 by the players knowing the game at its purest level. Then, we can have a happy marriage.
Voices are growing that we should have T20 cricket and do away with oneday cricket?
No man. The various forms must have a role to play. If we go that way, we will not have so many great players. That means some guys will miss out coming in the great category.