Cricket getting more attention than any other sport is a long debate in our country. Virender Sehwag, the former India cricketer who interviewed two athletes at a book launch programme in New Delhi went on to make a bold statement regarding this debate.

“I always used to think Olympics and Commonwealth Games are bigger than cricket (events). I used to think that these athletes would have been looked after very well, that they would be getting good food, and nutrition along with physios and trainers,” he said.

The right hand-batsman then revealed that after meeting with other sportspersons, he realised that they don’t get the facilities they deserve.

“When I met and got to know them (the non-cricketers he interviewed for the show), I realised that whatever facilities we (cricketers) are getting, these guys are not even getting 10 or 20% of that. Despite that they are getting the medals. They deserve a lot more than what they get, because they are getting medals for India,” Sehwag added.

While talking about the importance of coaches, the former India opener who has two triple centuries in Test cricket realised that cricketers in general don’t credit their coaches as much as other sportspersons do.

“Coaches have a big role to play in the life of cricketers but we don’t give them the right amount of credit, we tend to keep it to ourselves.”

“We cricketers do not credit our coaches as much as other sportsmen do, may be because when you start playing for the country, the cricketers forget their coaches because they don’t get to meet and speak a lot but in other sports they need their coaches from the start till the end and the coaches also spend a lot of time,” he added.

(With PTI inputs)