LILLEE_ON_ICC_AUG95

Lillee talks about ICC and WC.

- He says ICC should not tamper with rules much. He said sarcastically, there might be a rule one day, that the first bowlers cannot bowl inswinger, outswingers, yorkers etc. He said there is 100 years of tradition in cricket and rules should not destroy it. But at the same time has praised efforts to regularize pitch preparation.

- He said the forthcoming World Cup is wide open. Any team can win, but says India cannot win. He pointed out that in `83 India won because, it had 5 all-rounders in the team spear-headed by Kapil Dev. With Kapil Dev`s retirement, it has left a huge void and India will require all-rounder of his calibre...

- He does not believe that Australia is the team in transition (after Border`s retirement). He said even in the absence of the top bowlers, Australia beat Windies squarely in the last test series.

- Asked to compare Lara and Tendulkar, he said both are potentially great batsman, but Lara plays in typically West Indian fashion (cavalier), whereas Tendulkar is more restrained [!!]. This might be due to the fact that Tendulkar has played more tests. He said Tendulkar is definitely more mature than Lara in his ap- proach to Cricket. He added, Tendulkar`s with his restraint can play for 20 more years, but same cannot be said about Lara.

- About the MRF pace foundation, he picked Ankola to be the best fast bowler to come out of it and who is knocking at the doors of test selection. He added that Srinath and Prasad visit it to hone their skills.

- According to him, Warne is the best leg spinner in the world since he can spin and has complete control over his delivery.