Former German midfielder Dietmar ‘Didi’ Hamann, who has also played for Bayern Munich and Liverpool, has said Sachin Tendulkar is his “favourite cricketer.”
“I don’t know whether I should say this, as I’m being interviewed for a Pakistani cricket website, but here goes: my favourite cricketer is Sachin Tendulkar. He’s an all-time great, a wonderful cricketer,” Hamann, who represented Germany in the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups and has had nearly 200 appearances for EPL giant Liverpool told Pakpassion.net .
“In addition, I’ve always enjoyed watching Ricky Ponting and I particularly enjoy watching allrounders in action as they have to perform with both bat and ball and are generally the stand-out cricketers, especially Jacques Kallis. Among Pakistan players, I like Shahid Afridi,” Hamann, who also had more than 100 matches for Bayern Munich said.
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Hamann’s interest in cricket grew during his club career in England and the 2005 Ashes only enhanced it. Such was his interest that he played in an exhibition match in Cheshire County League.
“I really find the game fascinating. I think cricket is a fantastic game and you obviously need a lot of skill to play it, but there’s also a lot of strategy behind it and it covers everything that should be covered in a great sport in terms of skill levels and strategy,” Hamaan told the website during an interaction.
Hamaan described himself as an armchair expert on cricket.
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“I really enjoy listening to the experts on television talking about the game as you learn a lot from their comments and analysis,” he said.
This article has been corrected for a typographical error