Former India opening batsman Virender Sehwag on Thursday made a bold statement that multi-sport events like the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games are bigger than cricket events. Virender Sehwag, who interviewed two athletes at a book launch programme here, also said other sportspersons get too little "facilities" as compared to what cricketers get. Virender Sehwag has been involved in promoting a lot of other sports ever since his retirement from international cricket. On various platforms previously, Virender Sehwag has expressed the interest to provide other sports with the same space that cricket gets in the country.

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Virender Sehwag thinks Olympics and CWG are bigger than cricket

"I always used to think Olympics and Commonwealth Games are bigger than cricket (events). I used to think that these athletes would have been looked after very well, that they would be getting good food, and nutrition along with physios and trainers," said Virender Sehwag.  "But when I met and got to know them (the non-cricketers he interviewed for the show), I realized that whatever facilities we (cricketers) are getting, these guys are not even getting 10 or 20% of that. Despite that, they are getting the medals. They deserve a lot more than what they get because they are getting medals for India," he added.

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Virender Sehwag stresses on the significance of coaches

Sehwag, who played 104 Tests and 251 ODIs between 1999 and 2013, also said that cricketers, in general, don't credit their coaches as much as other sportspersons do. "Coaches have a big role to play in the life of cricketers but we don't give them the right amount of credit, we tend to keep it to ourselves," Sehwag said. "We cricketers do not credit our coaches as much as other sportsmen do, maybe because when you start playing for the country, the cricketers forget their coaches because they don't get to meet and speak a lot but in other sports they need their coaches from the start till the end and the coaches also spend a lot of time." Sehwag launched a book titled 'Umeed', brought out by EPIC channel and Rupa Publications. Earlier, Virender Sehwag had also congratulated PV Sindhu after she clinched her maiden gold in the BWF World Championships and hailed her as an inspiration to the upcoming generations in India. 

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