T20 cricket destroyed the game, says Sobers ..

Legendary West Indies all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers lashed out at at the latest format, the Twenty20 cricket, saying that the shortest version of the game has destroyed world cricket to a great extent.

The greatest all-rounder in world cricket, made these observations during a felicitation ceremony organised by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and held at the Hotel Taj Samudra in Colombo yesterday.

“The Twenty20 format has taken a heavy toll on the West Indies cricket as well as some of the other teams in the world and because of this some top players have even forgotten their own country” revealed Sobers.

“I don’t think that Twenty 20 cricket will run away but I think Test cricket is the ultimate for any player. If you are a cricketer that is the kind of cricket you would like to play. There is a lot of money involved in world cricket today. But I have always played for the West Indies team. It was such a pleasure and joy to be able to do what I did. Records make nothing. The team was more important for me. But I don’t think we have that today” added Sobers.

Sobers further noted that he was amazed with the kind of improvement the Sri Lanka cricket team has achieved during the last few years in all formats of the game.

Sobers who had the opportunity of coaching the Sri Lanka team for the 1983 World Cup in England, believed that that the team had the potential to go the distance and 13 years later they were able to emerge as World Champions.

I was really proud when Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996 and and I was pleased with the kind of performance of the players spearheaded by Arjuna Ranatunga who for me was a player with a great amount of talent and potential.