Former Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu feels that the Indian Cricket League has only harmed the future of budding cricketers."ICL did not do any harm to people like us but there was not much support lent to them by the people who endorsed it. For a 35-36 year old it was an ideal scenario as the career is over but for a 20-year old, it was a pure damage," Atapattu told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session with sports management students.
Talking about Sachin Tendulkar, Atapattu, who played in 90 Test matches and 268 ODIs, said the batting maestro fully deserves the feat of completing 50 centuries.
"Sachin is a fantastic cricketer and has not changed in the last 25 years and neither has his records. He had given us many bad memories. He is such a humble person no matter who you are I wish him all the best and hope that he gets his 50 (centuries) soon," he said.
"I know that he has not won a World Cup yet. I don't wish him too much for that as I want Sri Lanka to win the World Cup," he added.
Atapattu said the felicitation of Tendulkar by Cricket South Africa (CSA) was just one of the many in the champion batsman's glorious career.
"I feel that the CSA felicitating him is just another thing for him, as he will have more celebrations and felicitations than his runs," the 40-year-old said.
Recalling his experience of playing in India, Atapattu said he cherished the win in the Pepsi Independence Cup in 1998.
"I do have a bad memory of playing at Wankhede stadium when I got out at 98. But the one win, which I cherish the most, is the Pepsi Independence Cup in 1998 was a great thing among many more. We come here so often there is nothing special at all as it feels like home. Only thing is that we can?t move around freely on road due to the feeling of being mobbed," he said.
Atapattu, who is coaching the Singapore national team, said his current job was a tough ask.
"It's a challenging task being a coach when you are not getting enough players to participate in them. We have had issues with grounds. Singapore hosted Youth Olympics so they had to get various grounds for the whole year. We did not have grounds for the whole year. It was hard to get things going.
At the end of the day it is frustrating that I don't get a chance to coach there. It's heartbreaking," he said. source by: daily mirror
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