Former England skipper David Gower has joined the growing list of Sourav Ganguly admirers and heaped lavish praise on ex-India skipper’s appointment as the top boss of the Board of Cricket Control of India.
The former England top order batsman sees fellow left-hander worthy enough of stepping into the International Cricket Council’s elite chair.
Considered as one of the most stylish left handed batsman to have played the game, Gower feels that with a good and commendable job, chances are high that Sourav will one day find himself in ICC, but feels leading BCCI is any day a bigger job.
“I think he is a very, very good man and has those political skills. I think he has the right attitude and can keep things together and will do good job. And if you do a good job as BCCI chief in the future, who knows? But I would actually say the more important job, to be honest, is running BCCI. Being head of ICC is an honour there is a lot that can be done by ICC, but actually look at the rankings, look at where the power is heading up. BCCI is definitely the bigger job,” he further said.
Gower feels Ganguly possesses all the qualities that are required in a good administrator and has in him the right attitude to carry on seamlessly as the president of the world’s richest cricket organisation and usher in a new and better era for Indian cricket.
“What can I tell you about Sourav? I have had many chats with him over the years and he obviously was a very fine player and his records speak for himself. One thing I have learnt over the years is that if you are going to run BCCI, you need to be many, many thing. Having a reputation like he has is a very good start, but you need to be a very deft politician. You need to have control of a million different things,” said Gower ahead of “Q20”, a unique chat show for the fans presented by Glo Fans – a digitial platform for fans.
“And of course you need to be responsible for a game that is followed by, I mean, should we say a billion people here in India? We all know about the immense following for cricket in India. So it is indeed a wonderful thing to behold. Sourav has the toughest task imaginable in charge of BCCI, but so far I would say the signs are very good. He has listened, given his own opinion and has pulled strings gently,” he added.
Gower, one of the marquee names alongside Waqar Younis and other sporting greats listed for Q20, will interact with the fans in a freewheeling chat session and answer 20 random questions shot at him by the sports lovers on May 16 and 17. Q20 will be allow fans across all available digital media platforms across the globe to ask questions from the sporting heroes.
Gower has been one of the batting mainstays for England in the 80’s and helped the Englishmen to many memorable victories. He feels that the newly introduced ICC World Test Championships has come into the existence to give it a context but considering the current scenario it is good enough for now and he does not have much qualms about it.
“The idea of this World Test Championship has come about for one very simple reason that people are worried about the survival of test match cricket. Back in the seventies, eighties, I don’t think we needed context to be fair. Test cricket was very much more obviously the most important format and if there was anything to be judged by, it was the performances in test matches both as an individual and as a team. Odysseys were seen as serious, but in a sense, more fun. I think everyone just believed that test cricket was the ultimate test and if you had any sort of personal pride, if you had any team pride, then you made sure that you played as well as you could in most test matches,” he said
“But I think the, the idea is a good enough one for now, whether or not we get through it, obviously with interruption to world cricket at the moment, there are issues with that and whether or not we get to that first final in due course, we will have to wait and see.”
Sunil Gavaskar has once famously called out Gower a preacher during England’s Tour to India in 1984-85 but the Englishman thinks it was probably a joke and says that he indeed does share a great rapport with him.
“There were certain incidents that happened in the Eden Test and when he called me a preacher, I was amused by it and probably thought he was joking. I have a lot of respect and affection for Sunny. He’s one of those men who I do look to met forward when I am in India. We have had meals out in Mumbai and we have had meals out in the UK. He is a very, very good man and of course, one great player.I absolutely have no problem with the one preacher that used to describe me,” concluded Gower.