Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri, who is an ardent fan of Golf, has recently recalled his meeting with Tiger Woods –one of the most successful golfers of all time.

Shastri told Gulf News, “I happened to be walking with him once as I was then a guest of Gulf News in your box a few years ago during the Dubai Desert Classic. I think it was on the eighth or ninth hole and Tiger was walking and he had just come back from a round of injuries. I don’t know why I had to tell him but I told him Just believe in yourself and you will be back … you are going nowhere.”

He further added, “Unfortunately, the guy has gone through so many injuries, forget everything else. Injuries which threatened his entire career, so to fight all that and come back and win the PGA Tournament last Sunday — ending his five-year trophy drought — is like the icing on the cake.”

Meanwhile, Mohammad Ali and Woods are the greatest sportsmen who have changed the face of the sport, according to the former Indian skipper.

He signed off by saying, “For me, the two greatest sportsmen who contributed to sport and changed the level of a sport is Mohammad Ali in boxing and Tiger Woods in golf. Single-handedly, he took golf and made it a multi-billion dollar business. This man has an aura. There were [Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmers] but for one man to take it to that level is special. We had a (Sachin) Tendulkar in cricket but in golf to take it that level, I think the entire golfing fraternity was happier Woods at his triumph. They were the happiest because they know the amount of bucks they are making today is thanks to him. I could see that in Justin Rose’s interview in which he said that I knew where he was coming from.”