Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar on Sunday (April 19) said people shouldn’t give Wisden Almanack any importance as it gives preference to performances in England.
Gavaskar’s comments came in the wake of India opener Rohit Sharma’s exclusion from the list of Wisden’s leading cricketers for the year 2019.
Despite being the leading run-scorer (648 runs from 9 innings with 5 centuries) in last year’s ODI World Cup held in England and Wales, Rohit failed to make the cut.
Earlier this month, Wisden named Ben Stokes, Ellyse Perry, Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Jofra Archer and Simon Harmer as the leading cricketers of last year.
In his column for Mid Day, Gavaskar wrote, “Firstly, let’s get one thing clear: Rohit is not going to lose sleep over his exclusion. All that he and the others in the Indian team are concerned about is winning games for the country and getting those delightful thumps on the back and hair ruffled by teammates in appreciation of their effort. That’s the sweetest and only compliment that any cricketer wants.”
“Any other compliment, praise or even criticism doesn’t really matter. So, make no mistake it won’t matter to Rohit. He knows he gave his everything to the Indian team in their pursuit of the World Cup. You win some, you lose some.”
Citing the reason as to why Wisden’s opinion shouldn’t be taken seriously, Gavaskar said: “One may argue that Steve Smith was chosen as Cricketer of the Year in an earlier year and so does not qualify for his performances last year. This once again confirms that the second best or lower performances get the nod.”
“Remember also that a player could get thousands of runs and hundreds of wickets but if that has not happened in England then he still won’t be in the list of five since only performances in England are taken into account. Since that has been the case for so long, why should anyone even give the list and the publication any importance since it rates only what happens in England,” he concluded.
