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Ravi Shastri is undoubtedly one of those characters in Indian cricket who is not afraid of making any bold statements. The 59-year-old played his game fearlessly on the field and he maintained that essence of his personality in his commentary career as well as during his coaching stint.
As he is now serving as the commissioner of ongoing Legends League Cricket, the media got an opportunity to interact with him in Oman and as expected, he was bombarded with questions related to Virat Kohli and India's performance in South Africa. However, Ravi Shastri silenced everyone with his epic replies.
The former national head coach refused to make any comments on any players but he openly accepted that there is nothing to worry for Team India.
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However, when a reporter touched the issue of the country not winning any World Cup in recent times, Ravi Shastri seemed to have lost his cool as he started to announce the list of legendary players who did not win the trophy during their career, which included BCCI president and the current Indian head coach.
He said, "Bohot badhe badhe players nahi jeete hai. Ganguly kabhi jeeta nahi hai World Cup, Dravid nahi jeeta hai, Kumble nahi jeeta hai, Laxman nahi jeeta hai. Uska matlab ye thodi hai ki kharaab players hai." (So many great players have not won the world cup. Ganguly has not won a world cup. Dravid, Kumble, Laxman have not won a World Cup. Rohit Sharma has also not won. So, it doesn’t mean they are bad players)
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Shastri added, "World Cup winning captain sirf 2 hai. Sachin Tendulkar ko bhi 6 World Cups khelne padhe jeetne se pehle." (There are only two World Cup winning captains (for India). It took six World Cups for Sachin Tendulkar to win one)
"So it is not a question that you are judged by the World Cup. You are not judged, at the end of day, by how you play, are you an ambassador of the game, do you play the game with integrity, and for how long you play. That’s how you judge players," the 59-year-old concluded.