Since childhood he has great passion for cricket and absolutely crazy about the game and when he was two or three years old his mother (Minal) was bowling him a tennis ball under arm, Little Master Sunil Manohar Gavaskar told pupils of Sri Satya Sai Vidya Vihar here and went on to reveal how he understood the game.
“One day as my mother was bowling me in our front yard, my shot hit her on her nose and she started bleeding. I was worried and felt upset but she wiped the blood and asked to continue my batting saying that these things happen. Then I realised that if a hard cricket ball is used in a game and it hits some one, it really hurts but the game should go on.”
He had many heroes but M.L. Jaisimha was his all-time hero, who told him about the pitches in West Indies and the Caribbean pace bowlers before he went on his first overseas tour to West Indies (where he excelled himself) and Rohan Kanhai who helped to fine tune his batting and another batting great and his brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath, said Mr. Gavaskar.
“Determination, discipline and dedication are very important. Self discipline is necessary to keep yourself in the best possible physical and mental frame of mind. Then making an effort is essential. Success and failure will come and go but at the end of the day you must have the satisfaction that you have done your best,” Mr. Gavaskar advised the children. Introspection would lead one to do better.
“Children are the future of the country and they should always be positive. It was easy to be pessimistic and think negative which bring down quality and enjoyment,” he warned. He advised them to accomplish one good thing every day.
He also gave a few cricketing tips like not taking the eye off a short-pitched ball and staying put as the bowling was good and wait for the bowlers to get tired for make mistakes.
The master batsman said Sri Satya Sai Baba had helped him overcome his worries and provided guidance and recounted his many experiences with him.
Veteran writer and commentator and former Rector of Andhra University A. Prasanna Kumar, while introducing Mr. Gavaskar, said that he changed the face of Indian cricket. AU was the first university to confer an honorary doctorate on Mr. Gavaskar, he said.
Turns emotionalSchool Principal A. Kausalya presided. Mr. Gavaskar first visited the Sai Baba temple on the school premises and became emotional while offering prayers.
Later, he autographed a bat and ball for the school. He offered ‘harati’ to Sri Sai baba at the end of the meeting and took it around for the children. The schoolchildren presented him a book released by former President Abdul Kalam and a brochure. School captains Sai Prasanna and M.S. Srinidhi compered the programme. Satya Sai Seva Organisation office-bearers B. Ramgopal, V.R. Nageswara Rao and P.R.S.N. Naidu, S. Vijaya Kumar of Vijay Nirman Company and others were present.
