'Without Sir Gary there can be no Dream XI'
The reason four Indians made it to the ICC team list is because most of the votes came from India, Waugh says
London: Steve Waugh, the former captain of Australia, knows about success and what it takes to achieve greatness. In that case when he expresses bafflement at the exclusion of Sir Garfield Sobers from the recently published ICC's dream team, then cricket's governing body may want to take a look at the list. He spoke to Gulf News at length. Excerpts:
Gulf News: Your take on ICC's Dream XI...
Steve Waugh: How can you have a Dream XI without a dream player like Sir Gary? As far as the Dream XI is concerned, I was surprised not to see Garfield Sobers in that list. Maximum numbers of votes came from the Indians and that's the reason four Indian cricketers made it to that team.
The 2000th Test is being played at the Lord's. If you are to select the best ever Test match which one would you pick?
Among the 1999 Test matches, if I have to pick one Test that would be the Test match at Eden Gardens in 2001 where India won after following on. How can we forget [V.V.S.] Laxman's innings of 281?
How do you rate India's performance in the recent years?
As far as the Indian team is concerned, they are doing well for quite some time now. They not only have match-winners, but a good bunch of talented cricketers. On top of it, almost six-seven cricketers are same old faces who are playing together forming the nucleus. This really helps a lot when the team is hungry and eager to win. We had [Adam] Gilchrist, [Shane] Warne, [Glenn] McGrath, [Damien] Martyn and we also won many matches because we were playing with these boys at a stretch for many Test matches. The Indians are doing the same.
England is fighting to be the number one Test team, too …
England is a great contender to challenge India's supremacy. They have been playing good cricket since the last two years. If India has to dominate the world cricket, then the reserve bench has to improve.
On Zaheer Khan's injury in the Lord's test…
Zaheer is a key player and if India doesn't get his service, then they will surely struggle. If India has to win, Zaheer's presence is a must.
On the lie-detector test…
As far as lie-detector is concerned, I think the cricketers all over the world should come forward and try to erase the black spot which has been tagged with the great game. I am happy to know that Andrew Strauss has agreed to speak in front of lie-detectors.
On Brian Lara…
I will definitely try to keep Brian Lara close to Sachin Tendulkar. He is also genuinely a big cricketer and a great match-winner. I wish Lara had the appetite like Sachin.
