ENG vs IND 2018: Cricket is Dravid and Laxman batting through the day to beat Australia, says Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey is closely following the ongoing England-India Test series.

Jeffrey defined cricket as Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman batting together through a day.

Having fallen in love with our great game many years ago, the famous novelist Jeffrey Archer has tried to define the undefinable and said, "Cricket is Dravid and Laxman batting through the day to beat Australia". 

It's incredible how many people's lives and hearts that partnership between two of India's greatest touched. 

Jeffrey is not only one of the most famous fiction writers but also has immense love for the game in his heart and he absolutely adores Test Cricket. 

"It's your paper that has written 15 million people have read my books. Well, that's quite a lot," he told TOI in a chat, where he talked about his meeting with the Indian Cricket Team recently and all things life and our sport. 

Jeffrey, who has authored 'Kane and Abel', says people believe his new work is "it's better than Kane and Abel and If that's so, it must be something. The other day I met your players at the Indian High Commissioner's residence. Ashwin was particularly charming, he came up to me and demanded my new book and a photograph with him." he said. 

Jeffrey is also one to nonchalantly let go what he thinks and laugh at it. 

He said, I'm the "the natural captain of the England cricket team" because of "The fact that I can't bat, bowl or field is a feeble reason not to invite me to captain the English team."

Archer absolutely despises T20 stuff, "That's not cricket my friend," he says, "this(Test Cricket) is. Cricket is Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman batting through the day to beat the Aussies, not T20," But when asked isn't T20 just like the contemporary bestsellers that he writes, he replied, "Good try young man, But try reading a book in three-and-a-half hours," 

Jeffrey is also very amused at India's Test series in England being traditionally named after his old friend, the great MAK Pataudi. 

"I was great friends with Nawab of Pataudi. He was the cricket captain of Oxford and I was the athletics captain. Let me tell you, he was an old-fashioned gentleman even when he was 18," Archer said and also mentioned meeting "the remarkable wife and daughter of Tiger - Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan."

"My favourite cricketer is an Indian: Dravid. His batting was so beautiful, I have never seen anybody so elegant and correct as (Rahul) Dravid, not even my second favourite, Dennis Compton," Well, Jeffrey is part of a huge list of people who share the same sentiment. 

He concluded by giving an insight into his association with Sunil Gavaskar and said, "I am from Somerset, the only county never to have ever won the championship. But that doesn't mean I stopped loving my county side. Gavaskar came and played for us (in the mid-1980s) and we hold him in high respect."

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 15 Aug, 2018

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