Days after the Wisden Almanack, a cricket reference book published by Wisden and popularly termed as the Bible of cricket, excluded Rohit Sharma from its top five cricketers of 2019, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the publication and accused it of only considering English cricketers. “Rohit will not lose his sleep over it,” said Gavaskar after Wisden picked Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Ellyse Perry, Jofra Archer and Simon Harmer as the top five cricketers of the year 2019 while also naming Ben Stokes as the Leading cricketer of the year. Their choice was subject to huge criticism by the Indian fans and experts alike with many picking on the publication for ignoring Rohit Sharma, who was adjudged the best batsman of the World Cup. Ben Stokes Named As Leading Cricketer in the World in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2020.

“Firstly, let’s get one thing clear: Rohit is not going to lose sleep over his exclusion,” said Gavaskar in his column for Mid Day. “All that he and the others in the Indian team are concerned about is winning games for the country and getting those delightful thumps on the back and hair ruffled by teammates in appreciation of their effort. That’s the sweetest and only compliment that any cricketer wants.” ‘Rohit Sharma Effortlessly Takes the Bowlers Down’: Jos Buttler Heap Praises on the Indian Opener.

“Any other compliment, praise or even criticism doesn’t really matter. So, make no mistake it won’t matter to Rohit. He knows he gave his everything to the Indian team in their pursuit of the World Cup. You win some, you lose some,” he further stated in the column.

Gavaskar, who was the first batsman to cross 10, 000 runs in Test cricket, also opined that Wisden and its choices shouldn’t be taken seriously as it only considers English cricketers and performances in England. “One may argue that Steve Smith was chosen as Cricketer of the Year in an earlier year and so does not qualify for his performances last year. This once again confirms that the second best or lower performances get the nod.”

“Remember also that a player could get thousands of runs and hundreds of wickets but if that has not happened in England then he still won’t be in the list of five since only performances in England are taken into account,” Gavaskar added. “Since that has been the case for so long, why should anyone even give the list and the publication any importance since it rates only what happens in England.

Rohit finished 2019 as the highest ODI run-scorer (1490) and was named the ICC ODI Player of the Year. He also finished the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup as the highest run-scorer and was awarded the Golden Bat for his 648 runs and five centuries, equaling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most centuries smashed in a single edition of the World Cup

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 19, 2020 04:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).