New Delhi:
Indian captain Virat Kohli’s all praise for BCCI president Sourav Ganguly for establishing a winning culture hasn’t gone down well with batting legend Sunil Gavaskar on Sunday, arguing that the team was winning even when the current captain was not even born.
India have easily made clean sweeps over the West Indies 2-0 in an away series before continuing their ruthless domination at home against South Africa (3-0) and Bangladesh (2-0) to firmly lead WTC standings with 360 points. Their nearest rivals, Australia, are on 116 points.
After India's crushing win, Kohli said India have learnt to stand up and it all "started from Dada's (Sourav Ganguly) team".
Not impressed with the thought of Kohli, former captain Gavaskar said: "The Indian captain said that this thing started in 2000 with Dada's (Ganguly's) team. I know Dada is the BCCI President, so maybe Kohli wanted to say nice things about him. But India were also winning in the '70s and '80s. He wasn't born then."
"A lot of people still think that cricket started only in the 2000s. But the Indian team won overseas in the '70s. The Indian team also won away in 1986. India also drew series overseas. They lost as other teams did," Gavaskar said at the post-match show on Star Sports.
India also became the first team to complete four successive innings wins with their pink-ball Test win over Bangladesh.
"I can only say we are at the top of our game. You can't judge your team's dominance with just seven games. We're quite excited about how we are playing and what the challenges are."
Kohli further hailed pink-ball Test as the new beginning and said the BCCI under Sourav Ganguly would see more Test cricket-centric developments.
"The pink ball Test is a beginning, I'm sure these will be planned more often. And then you know that buzz will be created again in different parts of the country as well.
"Dada has been very open and welcoming of all viewpoints that I discussed with him and to understand you know, what point of view we have as a team and his vision is also in sync. He's also doing things for the betterment of Test cricket. In return Indian cricket will be stronger," he concluded.
