Cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar can still attract vast crowd in Test matches around the world, Robin Marlar, a former president of Marylebone Cricket Club, said.
“Cricketers like (Sachin) Tendulkar can still attract vast spectators at Test matches,” Marlar said while delivering the inaugural Ranji Memorial Lecture at the Nehru Centre here on Thursday night.
In his lecture titled “How to Protect, Preserve and Make Prosperous Test Cricket,” Marlar was critical of the cricket administrators in India, who he said, were driven by commercial considerations rather than making Test cricket attractive.
“At present they (cricket administrators in India) were driven by financial consideration rather than the spirit of the game,” he said.
Describing Ranjisinhji as one of the all-time great batsmen, Marlar said he had a team of coaches and bowlers who honed his cricketing skills.
Ex-India captain Sunil Gavaskar and his former team-mate Dilip Doshi, former England batsman Mike Brearley, former Pakistan basman Asif Iqbal, chairman of MCC Charles Frey and Zubin Mehta, well-known Indian western music conductor were present on the occasion.
