Carrying Olympic torch is a dream come true, says Shastri

Muscat: "I can trade everything I have achieved on the cricket field for an Olympic Gold medal," said former Indian captain and coach Ravi Shastri after he was introduced as the Oman Olympic Committee's (OOC) celebrity torch-bearer.

"I am sure I will get goose bumps when the torch comes in my hand," Shastri told Gulf News at the Crown Plaza Hotel on Saturday night.

He said that he grew up admiring feats of some great Olympians of yesteryear and this was a great moment for him.

"It is a great feeling, I feel that I am part of the opening ceremony as the torch passes one country after another," he said.

Great honour

Shastri, a reputed television commentator, has been invited by the OOC to take part in the Oman leg of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay as a celebrity torchbearer.

"It's a dream come true and a great honour to be part of the Olympic torch-relay for Oman," Shastri said, adding that it doesn't matter where and which country gave him the honour to hold the torch. "Honour is an honour, it cannot be better here or there," he said in reply to a question whether he would have liked to get this honour in his home country India, from where the torch will pass after Oman and Pakistan. Shastri has been coming to Oman on and off and was also part of the Indian team that played against Pakistan in 1992 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. "There are so many expatriates living in this region who follow cricket so it is an honour to relay the torch in front of them, it also puts Oman on the map," he enthused.

Shastri said that he would love to see cricket being part of the Olympic movement. "I reckon Twenty20 is the ideal format to be introduced at the Olympic level," he said. The chairman of India's National Cricket Academy also believes that the shorter version (Twenty20) would help spread the game further.

"This attractive and suspense-filled format will enhance the popularity of the game worldwide and I see no reason why cricket cannot be part of Olympics," he stressed.