The Hindu : National : Natwar, the cricket lover

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

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National

Natwar, the cricket lover

NEW DELHI, JUNE 9. For once, the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, let the cricket connoisseur in him take over and though he described himself a ``mere Minister'' in presence of the "living legend" Virender Sehwag, it was eventually the politician who hogged the limelight. The occasion was the release of writer-journalist Indranil Basu's account of the India-Pakistan series 2004 titled Winning Games and Hearts.

"I remember my highest score for St. Stephen's was 62 and my heroes included Nelson Mandela, General Giap and Don Bradman. In Canberra, I asked the then Australia Prime Minister Bob Hawk to allow me accompany him to a Bradman dinner in Sydney which he did,'' Mr. Singh recalled.

Showering praises on Sehwag, he said, "If anybody can emulate Brian Lara's 400 knock, it is going to be Sehwag." Pointing out that it was one of his forefathers Maharaja Bhupender Bahadur Singh who had donated the Ranji trophy, he said his family had strong cricket connection and Ranji Singh was ADC to his great grandfather.

Suggesting there should be a joint cricket team comprising players from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, he said "this SAARC team would give any other team a run for their money."

Sehwag described the book as a good one, and, in a lighter vein said: "There are a lot of stories [of the tour] in the book and I too feature in some. So do read it."

UNI

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