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1971 team felicitated

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: The 1971 Indian cricket team which won a series in the West Indies and England for the first time was felicitated at a function got up by a local sports and arts foundation at the Nehru Centre here on Thursday.

Speaking at the function, Sir Garfield Sobers said of Sachin Tendulkar, who was also present, “Sachin, you have touched me with your presence. You are great. It doesn't seem that you would give up cricket or cricket would give you up.”

Present at the felicitation function were Ajit Wadekar, B.S. Chandrashekhar, E.A.S. Prasanna, Abbas Ali Baig, Syed Kirmani, Salim Durrani, Farokh Engineer, S. Venkatraghavan, Bishan Singh Bedi, K. Jayantilal, Rusi Jeejeebhoy, Sheetal Solkar, Nirupama Mankad, Nandini Sardesai, Jayanti Jaisimha and Mrs. Krishnamurthy.

Lifetime achievement awards were presented to Bapu Nadkarni and Chandu Borde by Sobers. A bat signed by the members of the 1971 Indian team was presented to Tendulkar by Wadekar and Sobers.

The 73-year-old Barbadian enlivened the proceedings with his anecdotes, his reasoning of the six 6s in an over off Malcolm Nash in the Nottinghamshire-Glamorgan match and assessments of the Indian players, notably Bedi, Prasanna, Venkatraghavan, Chandrashekhar and Durrani.

“I have never faced or seen a leg-spinner as good as Subhash Gupte and Bishan and Prasanna were the two spinners who had the skill to beat batsmen in the air.”

Touching upon two more Indian cricketers, looking at Zaheer Khan he said: “I like the way you bowl and the style, looking at the batsman on your way back.

“I like the way the Indian opener (Virender Sehwag) approaches his game. His attitude is the same in Test, 50-over and Twenty20 cricket. Why should it change at all?”

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