In spite of a heavy downpour, the faithful turned up at the C.K. Nayudu Hall, Cricket Club of India (CCI) on Thursday evening for the Legends’ Club meeting convened to celebrate former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar’s 65th birthday. It was an occasion for three generations of cricketers such as Bapu Nadkarni, Milind Rege and Shishir Hattangadi to go down memory lane and talk about what made Gavaskar a master craftsman and a massive run-getter in Test cricket.
“Gavaskar was to cricket what Nandu Natekar was to badminton and Ramanathan Krishnan to tennis. They made everything look easy. Enough has been said about his batting, but what distinguished him from the others was his decision not to use the helmet. It (to wear helmet) has become sort of mandatory today. Gavaskar relied on eye-sight and foot work. He climbed the ladder gradually from school to college and from university to first class cricket. He never forgot to play for his club Dadar Union when he was in Bombay,” said Nadkarni.
Gavaskar’s childhood friend and classmate at St. Xaviers School, Rege said Gavaskar was not a prolific run-getter in school and college.
“We sat on the same bench, played cricket in school and in college. He did not score many runs in schools cricket, or in collegiate cricket, but then suddenly the fire-in-his-belly started growing as he started playing inter-university cricket.”
Intense rivalry Rege went on to say that there was an intense rivalry between him and Gavaskar in school and college.
“I thought Times Shield cricket was important, while for him inter-university was crucial and hence he took admission to do masters. He was dropped from the Bombay team initially and he spent a few matches as water boy and scorer. Probably the one thing that changed his outlook was when, as a child, his uncle Madhav Mantri told him not to touch his India cap unless he earned the right to wear it,” Rege said.
Former Mumbai opener Hattangadi narrated one or two stories of his interactions with Gavaskar and recalled how the champion opener persuaded leg-spinner Subhash Gupte to tweak a few deliveries during India’s net session at Trinidad in 1971.
“What was important to Gavaskar was the spirit demonstrated by Gupte, although old. Gavaskar appears to be worried about the youth; he wants them to have sense of history,” said Hattangadi.