London: What is common to Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev and Steve Waugh? All three are captains who have lifted the World Cup trophy at Lord’s — West Indies’ Lloyd did it twice in 1975 and 1979, India’s Kapil Dev in 1983 and Australia’s Steve Waugh in 1999.
To be with the trio together in a commentary room for a while as the proud captains who have the lifted the World Cup at Lord’s was special. The three captains are all commentating for Dubai based Channel 2 group, which has the global broadcast rights for radio feed for the event.
Gulf News was fortunate to spend time with these captains in the radio commentary box. Talking about this World Cup, Lloyd said: “This tournament has been quiet exciting. Runs were scored well and there was some good fielding. I think it has been a success. We have to give credit to the organisers of the event as whatever they have done has come out superbly.”
Since Lloyd had seen all the World Cups, how different has this edition been? “It has had different roles. Now you have DRS where you can review the decisions. It is also different from when we played where we had 60 overs and now only 50 overs. So it is vastly different, but cricket is exciting.”
Kapil Dev had famously ended West Indies’s dominance in cricket in 1983. How does he feel in being responsible for paving the way for sub- continent countries to become champions in cricket? “I did not show the way. I think everybody work hard on winning; so I wouldn’t take the credit solely. We all tried to chip in through our cricket as our previous generations had also worked hard. So yes, we are part of the great journey.”
Waugh, who had lifted the trophy 20 years ago for Australia, said: “The team that keeps calm and lives in the present, does not look too far ahead and worries about what has just happened or what can happen, will win the World Cup.”
Lloyd, Kapil and Waugh’s comments have made great impacts on their listeners. Ajay Sethi, chairman of the Channel 2 group, remarked: “Our global feed has reached one billion radio listeners and with technology, we have made it accessible to 17 broadcasters globally. We sold nearly 100,000 cricket radio earpieces during this World Cup.”
It was interesting to hear more about the game from the three greats. Lloyd feels that “the quality of batting and bowling was wonderful during this World Cup. Players like Bumrah have done extremely well, and so have the spinners. Mitchell Starc has also done well for Australia, Rohit Sharma was special while Shakib (Al Hasan), (Virat) Kohli — all these guys have done well. I was excited to see (Ravindra) Jadeja’s fielding.”
How does Lloyd rate Bumrah when compared with the pacers of his time? “He is of a different type. He swings the ball a lot and is very deceptive. He is a good thinker.”
