Make no mistake, Sachin is the best: Trueman

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Age has certainly mellowed Freddie Trueman, but at heart, he still remains the quintessential Yorkshireman. Fiercely proud, arrogant to some extent if you like, but a cricket romantic at heart who finds some of the modern day appendages of the game, like sledging, to be “disgraceful�. <br /><br />The figures speak for the capabilities of fiery Fred, who even now remains the third highest wicket taker for England at 307 wickets from only 67 Test matches, overtaken only by Ian Botham and Bob Willis.<br />He was the first English bowler to have crossed the 300 wickets-mark, and had captured five wickets or more 17 times. <br />A regular at the ‘Legends Suite’, in this home of Yorkshire, during the third Test match, Trueman turned nostalgic during a freewheeling session with <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India</span>. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Excerpts:</span> <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">It was at this ground when you had rocked India on debut. What are your memories of that event ? </span><br />Oh yes, it was exactly 50 years ago, yet it still seems just like other day. My victims were (Pankaj) Roy, (Madhav) Mantri, both Manjrekar and Hazare. <br />Vinoo Mankad did not play but to my mind, India had some of the finest batsmen who were nice blokes too. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">An age-old complaint against Indian batsmen is that they are not comfortable against short-pitched bowling. Do you agree ?</span> <br />Yes, to some extent, because your batsmen grow up playing on the slow wickets of the sub-continent. <br />However, there are exceptions like Sunny Gavaskar, who has scored more than 10 of his 34 Test centuries against the fearsome West Indian attacks. <br />Among the present lot, this boy Sachin is now the best player in the world - make no mistake about it. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">You are such lavish in praise of the batsmen, but what about the Indian bowlers you have seen ?</span> <br />India have always had a great tradition of spin bowlers and if you ask me, Shane Warne is no greater a leg-spinner than the late Subhas Gupte. I have never seen any batsman cutting or pulling Gupte easily. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">The modern day tearaway fast bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar or Brett Lee are quite prone to breaking down with injuries. Do you think it’s because of an overkill of the game these days?</span> <br />No, it’s more because of bad balance and bad action. The nearest to good action that comes to mind is that of Wasim Akram, and that too when he bowls round the wicket. <br />A few of the other top bowlers I like, say Glenn McGrath or Shaun Pollock, bowl from very close to the stumps and hence reap rich rewards. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Aggression has become a part and parcel of modern cricket. Do you think sledging is necessary to intimidate batsmen?</span> <br />It’s absolutely disgraceful. I might have often stared back at the batsman if he missed or something, but nothing beyond that. In my time, you patted a bowler if he took five wickets or clapped for a good shot. Those things have become out of fashion now. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Your partner Brian Statham was an ideal foil for you. How did your combination actually work?</span> <br />The history of fast bowlers shows most of the successful ones actually hunted in pairs, from ourselves to the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. <br />Now, we were different kind of bowlers with me relying on speed and accuracy while Brian concentrated on swing and off-the-seam movement. His stock delivery was the one that came in to the right-handed batsman, while mine was that moved away after pitching. My Yorkshire coach maintained that it’s the one which would get you wickets. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Don’t you think all the rule changes these days are making the game easy the batsmen?</span> <br />Absolutely. With restriction on the number of bouncers, you are taking away the thinking from the game. I can swear upon God that never in my career had I gone out with the intention to hit or maim a batsman, but the potential threat of a bouncer was something that played on the batsmen’s minds. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Do you think the increasing use of technology is robbing cricket of its human elements ?</span> <br />There should be a limit to everything. I for one, loathe the use of giant TV screens among the spectators as it is extremely derogatory for the umpires. Pitting them against technology in this manner is very unfair, while it might spark off crowd violence as well. </div> </div>