Mumbai, Feb 20 Former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar Tuesday said that Twenty20, the instant version of cricket, might just be the saviour of the game and we might take it seriously just like we embraced the earlier one-day international (ODI) version in the 1970s.'The present Indian team has the edge to win the forthcoming World Cup in the West Indies,' Gavaskar said while releasing a book 'One Day Cricket - The Indian Challenge' by noted cricket commentator and writer Ashis Ray at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) here.'Between 1970s and early 80s, Indian cricket was trying to find its footing and was new to the limited-over cricket format with very little exposure. Yet it went on the clinch its first World Cup title in 1983,' he said.'Today India is a frontrunner in every tournament they play in the limited over version of the game. India is a serious contender now,' said the man touted as the greatest Indian batsman.Ray, who gained fame for his unique and 'precise classical style of English commentary' on BBC's 'Test match Special', said he had tried to give a panoramic view of one-day cricket in his book.'The book chronicles one-day cricket from an Indian perspective. It traces its origin and covers every World Cup, Championship Trophy tournament and the 1985 Benson and Hedges World Championship,' Ray said.The book, which is Ray's first, devotes an entire chapter to the 'turning point' for India in ODIs - a win against the then mighty West Indies in March 1983.He said the book also portrays the bumpy shift in the balance of power in world cricket from the 'Anglo-Saxon control to Indian dominance.'Ray, who had broadcast ball-by-ball account on the BBC of India's meteoric march in the 1983 World Cup, said that the book is mostly 'a first hand, anecdotal sweep of over four years of one-day cricket, blended with sharp analysis. 'The book is an invaluable statistical guide for cricket buffs,' said the first South Asian to head the London bureau of CNN in 1992 before being appointed its consultant editor.Ray thanked HarperCollins Publishers for 'timely publication' of the book ahead of the forthcoming World Cup.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
