Useless to compare

Updated On: 13 November, 2023 05:50 AM IST | Mumbai | Ian Chappell

Comparisons are being made between Kapil Dev’s 175 and Glenn Maxwell’s 201 at this World Cup. The playing conditions and rules are different, equipment was sometimes primitive then. So, it’s a total waste of time and…

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Kapil Dev during his 175 not out against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup at Tunbridge Wells; {right} Australia’s Glenn Maxwell during his 201 not out v Afghanistan at Wankhede on Tuesday. Pics/Getty Images

Sunil Gavaskar By a strange coincidence the 1983 World Cup-winning squad was at an event in New Delhi when Glenn Maxwell was playing what is undoubtedly the innings of this century. We were getting updates as to what was unfolding there at the Wankhede Stadium even as Kapil Dev’s knock was being recalled with the same jaw-dropping awe 40 years later by his teammates.

Immediately, comparisons were being made between the knocks with some suggesting this knock was better than that. This is so typically Indian, this habit and insane desire to compare. Nowhere else in the world, including our neighbouring country, are players and performances compared across different eras, but we in India just love to do this. It’s wanting to show that the current is better than the past, not realising that in trying to do so, we are bringing our own heroes down.

Records meant to be broken

Records are meant to be broken as it is a sign of human progress, but if it’s a record that belongs to an Indian and when another Indian is nearing it, the frenzy to see it broken or overtaken is nothing short of manic.

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