New Delhi: Former International Cricket Council (ICC) elite panel umpire Ian Gould has named Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli as three batsmen that he loved watching while officiating and also pointed how the current India skipper is a lovely guy.
"Jacques Kallis. I loved watching Jacques. He was a very, very fine player. Sachin. And probably Virat. I was unlucky in some respects. I didn't see the best of Ricky Ponting. He was an outstanding character, outstanding captain, such a proud Australian," he told ESPNCricinfo.
Talking about Kohli, he further said: "He's one of those guys who's got, a bit like Sachin Tendulkar, the whole of India on his back, but you wouldn't know. You could walk into a restaurant and sit and chat with him for hours. He's a very worldly boy. When you look at Virat, you're thinking male model, pin-up boy, but he knows about the game inside out, the past, history. Lovely guy."
Gould was recently in the news when South Africa pacer Dale Steyn revealed that he had Tendulkar plumb in front during his historic maiden double hundred in ODIs in Gwalior in 2010, but Gould didn't give the legend out citing crowd pressure.
"Tendulkar scored the first double hundred in ODI cricket, and it was against us in Gwalior. And I actually remember -- I think I got him out lbw when he was about 190-odd. Ian Gould was the umpire, and he gave him not out," the South African pacer said during the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast with England bowler James Anderson.
"And I was like, ‘Why, why did you give him not out!? That's so dead.' And he was like, ‘Mate, look around – if I gave him out, I won't make it back to the hotel.'"
Gould had another interesting incident involving Tendulkar and that was during the 2011 World Cup semifinal between India and Pakistan in Mohali. While he gave Tendulkar LBW, the batsman took the DRS and the decision was overturned.
"Don't go down that road. I get teased about that. People send me pictures of my reaction after I was told in my ear by Billy Bowden that it was missing leg stump. It makes me laugh. It didn't make me laugh at the time, I can assure you. But I'd give it out again with my back to the wall. It was dead. I don't know what happened," he said.
