Former India skipper and eternal Twenty 20 basher, Bishan Singh Bedi has commended Mumbai&rsquo;s senior pro Wasim Jaffer for slamming the shortest form in the international game.
<img src="http://cms.mid-day.com/imagedata/2014/jan/Bishan-Singh-Bedi.jpg" alt="Bishan Singh Bedi" width="500" height="570" /> Bishan Singh Bedi
&ldquo;Youngsters are playing more of T20s nowadays. It is a shortcut (to success). Shorter the game, easier it is for the players. But bowlers and batsmen do not have the temperament to play four-day and five-day matches.&nbsp; That hunger to play long innings is missing even in Mumbai&rsquo;s youngsters. T20 is financially rewarding which is fine, but we need to strike a balance. Youngsters should have that appetite to play Test cricket,&rdquo; said the India Test opener during a felicitation function organised by his employers Indian Oil Corporation in Mumbai yesterday. Bedi, who once said, &ldquo;people who rave about the T20 Indian Premier League are mad,&rsquo; was delighted that a current player spoke about an ill that is afflicting the game.&nbsp;
<img src="http://cms.mid-day.com/imagedata/2014/jan/Wasim-Jaffer_4.jpg" alt="Wasim Jaffer" width="500" height="712" /> Mumbai&rsquo;s batting stalwart Wasim Jaffer pulls in the Ranji Trophy game against Jharkhand at the Wankhede Stadium last December. Pic/Suresh KK &ldquo;What Jaffer has said deserves kudos. These are the characters you need to uplift the game. Jaffer has been a very loyal and faithful servant of Mumbai cricket.&nbsp; His commitment to Mumbai and India is pretty remarkable. But, don&rsquo;t people know (about the ills of T20 cricket)? They are well aware of it. It&rsquo;s about a quick buck and it&rsquo;s there to be exploited,&rdquo; said Bedi.&nbsp; Tomorrow, Jaffer&rsquo;s Mumbai will take on arch-rivals Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final at the Wankhede Stadium where he would like to see his young batsmen occupy the crease in traditional style.&nbsp; Bedi hailed Australian players and administrators for giving Test cricket its due respect. &ldquo;Their players figure in T20 cricket as well, but the commitment they showed in the Ashes series was astonishing. That&rsquo;s because they cared about the baggy green.&nbsp; &ldquo;If there was a full house in Brisbane, it had to be full in Adelaide as well, and in Perth, and in Melbourne and in Sydney. The competition for crowd attraction was a spectacle that most of us didn&rsquo;t even notice.&nbsp; These are the kind of emotions which bring out the best from whoever is representing the country,&rdquo; remarked Bedi. Back the rookies Zaheer Khan and Abhishek Nayar are back for the quarter-final tie, but Mumbai&rsquo;s vulnerability has been thoroughly exposed. However, Jaffer, who led the side in the absence of Zaheer and Nayar, stressed that Mumbai&rsquo;s youngsters deserve a pat on their back for the way they bounced back against Gujarat. &ldquo;It is important to realise that it was a very young Mumbai side. Apart from me, Hiken Shah was the only other player with some experience. We have to give them time to get used to it.&nbsp; You cannot expect them to play like Rahane or Rohit Sharma immediately. It is important to identify talent and back them,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;

Former India player and T20 basher Bishan Singh Bedi praises the Mumbai stalwart for bringing into focus the negative impact of international cricket&rsquo;s shortest form

'People like Wasim Jaffer are the characters you need to uplift the game'

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'People like Wasim Jaffer are the characters you need to uplift the game'

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