Former India captain Rahul Dravid is the new owner of the Dublin Guardians team in the inaugural European T20 Premier League. He shared his vision to accelerate the growth of cricket in Europe and feels T20 is the perfect format for it.
Former India captain and head coach Rahul Dravid is set to begin a new journey as a team owner of the Dublin Guardians in the inaugural edition of the European T20 Premier League. Speaking to JioStar, Dravid shared his thoughts on his association with the ETPL as a team owner, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s prospects of playing Test cricket, and Team India’s chances of making it to the ICC World Test Championship Final.
Dravid on growing cricket in Europe
Dravid shared his thoughts on how the ETPL could accelerate the growth of cricket in Europe. “I’ve always felt that there is a lot of talent and a lot of opportunity to grow the sport in Europe. It felt like the right platform to be able to grow the sport in Europe and to try and make an effort as a former cricketer to have more people participate in the game, recognising that cricket needs to grow and be available to a lot more boys and girls to be able to play the game,” he said.
On his involvement as a team owner, he said, “There are some really good people to work with and be associated with the league as well. The Amsterdam Flames have Steve Waugh, someone I’ve always admired, and Jamie Dwyer setting up that team. Glenn Maxwell is part of one team, and even the league owners; just the passion that someone like Abhishek Bachchan has for the sport and the team that he has put up to set up the league, felt like a good bunch of people trying to do something really nice.”
He added, “I thought, ‘Why not get involved, do something slightly different?’ I’ve always been involved as a coach or as a player, but trying to set up things and appoint coaches and players and marketing and finance, stuff that is a little bit out of my comfort zone, is exciting nevertheless.”
‘T20 is a great format to promote the game’
Dravid also shared his thoughts on Test cricket and why T20 cricket is the perfect format to grow the game globally. “Personally, I love Test cricket; it’s always going to be the number one format of the game. But, you have to be realistic enough to realise that if you want to grow the game of cricket and not make it a niche game that’s played only by a few countries, and we want the next generation to be able to enjoy, follow and play the game, then T20 is a great format to be able to promote the game, especially in this part of the world, where you’re trying to introduce the game and get more people involved,” he said.
“From there, once you’re able to get people involved in the game, then you can start thinking about putting things in place to see if there’s an opportunity to grow the longer formats of the game in this part of the world. But when you’re starting, when you’re trying to take your early steps, I think the T20 format’s the perfect format,” he concluded. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianetnews Editorial staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)