"Entertainment in any sport is determined by the standard of play in that sport and not by what is happening in the stands." In saying so during an interview with PTI, West Indies pace legend and popular commentator, Michael Holding rebuffed the idea that cricket played in COVID-19 times won't be as attractive due to lack of crowd presence.
West Indies is in England to mark the return of international cricket after a lengthy hiatus next month via a Test series that will be played entirely behind closed doors.
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Holding doesn't think just because fans won't be there, that series or any other cricket played within the pandemic will be boring. He cited the example of football's 'English Premier League' to stress home his point.
"Crowds are very important to add the atmosphere but like football, that has restarted in the UK, the entertainment has been the standard of football played," said the 66-year-old.
Holding also weighed in over the issue of saliva-ban. The ICC has discontinued the traditional method of ball-shining as part of interim health safety measures adopted till normalcy returns.
"As I have said before, I don’t see the ban on using saliva being a problem. Perspiration does the same thing unless the polisher has something other than just saliva in his mouth," he said, playing down talks of the game's balance being majorly affected by such a ban.
Neither does Holding think that there should be more limited-overs matches arranged by cricket boards to tackle the economical impact of the pandemic.
"I don’t see how that should affect the type of cricket played," he said. "I would think the most money going into the coffers of cricket boards will be from TV contracts. That being the case, it should be a matter of supplying the number of days of cricket that the contract says."
Lastly, Holding reiterated why he is never seen as part of the commentary panel for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and also for international cricket played in India.
"You haven’t seen me in the IPL and you haven’t seen me (commentating) on any T20 game because I don’t do that form of the game," said the man, whose apathy towards T20 cricket is well known.
"As for doing cricket that India is involved in, I am sure you’ve seen me on India-England series and India versus South Africa series (in the past)."
"I work in England and South Africa so if they (India) are in those countries I work on those series. I worked on the India-West Indies series that was abandoned in 2014," Holding concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
