To cricket lovers of my generation who grew up in the 1970s, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was the ultimate icon. He symbolised everything that we wished for in a hero in the field of sports - determination to overcome odds, discipline to make it through the grind to reach and remain at the top, sheer guts to take on the best and the fastest without flinching or showing any sign of fear, chutzpah to stand up before the establishment and fight for right causes and above all a fierce sense of commitment towards the team and national pride. The fact that he was intelligent, articulate and had a sense of humour added more allure to his persona.
As a batsman, Gavaskar was the closest that came to perfection among the willow-wielders from India. His technique was flawless, his defence impeccable, his temperament colossal and his patience nothing short of phenomenal. It was not coincidental that his entry to the world of Test cricket took place in 1971, the year when India stunned the world by defeating two giants in international cricket - West Indies and England - in their own den. Gavaskar made his debut in the second Test of the series against the West Indies at Port of Spain and struck two half-centuries as India won by seven wickets. He went on to play a huge role in India retaining the 1-0 lead by scoring three centuries and a double century in the remaining three tests of that series to finish with a tally of 774 runs.
Though the law of averages caught up with him during the next two series, he came back strongly during the tour of England in 1974, where his performance with the bat was a silver lining in an otherwise disastrous tour. He missed most part of the series against the West Indies in 1974-75 due to a fracture suffered while playing a Ranji Trophy match. It was during the twin tours of New Zealand and the West Indies in 1975-76 that he came into his own in the international arena. He performed like a champion batsman during the remaining part of the decade and there was no series where he did not score a century or two. He was like a run machine, wearing down the bowlers from opposing sides and scoring runs in all conditions and against all attacks. It was this quality that impressed Gary Sobers and resulted in the great all-rounder placing Gavaskar in the fourth position among the top batsmen in the world in 1979.
From the 1980s onwards, chinks began to appear in the once impregnable technique of the maestro, which started getting exploited by fast bowlers around the world. The tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1981-82 was a bad one for him as was the series in West Indies in early 1983. He continued to score heavily in Tests at home, but even that took a beating in the series against England in 1984-85, where India lost to a weak touring side. But he got back to top form in the last two years of his career and ended up on a high with his last innings of 96 against Pakistan played on a minefield of a wicket at Bangalore being hailed as one of the greatest innings played on Indian soil.
In between all this, he broke records by the dozen. He became the first batsman ever to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket and erased the great Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries in Test matches. His tally of 34 hundreds in Tests stood as a record till it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar. He was the first cricketer to score centuries in both innings of a Test on three or more occasions, besides topping 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year more than twice.
Given his sharp cricketing intellect and the positive image he exuded it was only natural that he was considered as captaincy material from his early days. He was named as skipper for the second Test against the West Indies in 1974 but he could not play the match due to an injury sustained while playing in a domestic first-class game. He led the side to a facile win in the Test at Auckland in 1975 when the regular captain Bishan Singh Bedi was indisposed. But it was only in December, 1978, after the tour of Pakistan where Bedi met his Waterloo, that Gavaskar was named as full-fledged captain of the national side. His best moments as captain were leading the side to a win against the touring Pakistan side in 1979-80 and the victory in the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985, which was also his swansong as the captain of the national side.
Gavaskar also had his share of controversies during his playing days. His dislike for limited overs cricket during its initial days was well known. But this alone will not explain his tortoise like approach in the inaugural match of the first ever World Cup in 1975, where he remained unbeaten on 36 after playing 174 balls. This ensured that India’s reply against the mammoth England score of 334 amounted only to 132 in 60 overs! He was justifiably hauled over the coals for this performance and it took some time for him to get over this stigma. To be fair to him, he adjusted to the demands of the shorter version of the game in the latter part of his career and even had a three figure knock against his name before he hung up his boots.
Being articulate and headstrong, it was not surprising that he managed to rub many people the wrong way by his words and actions. He did not hesitate from calling the crowd at Sabina Park Kingston “ a bunch of barbarians” when they cheered Michael Holding for bowling bouncers at Indian tail end batsmen in 1976. During the tour of Australia in 1981, he almost threw away the match by forcing his opening partner Chetan Chauhan to leave the ground with him when he felt that he was given out wrongly by the umpire. He invited the wrath of critics and most of the followers of the game in India when he insisted on the selection of Suru Nayak, his teammate from Mumbai, in the team for the tour of England in 1982. He also had his fights with Kapil Dev, which was rumoured to be the reason behind in the latter getting dropped for the Test at Kolkata against England in 1985. Some of his declarations also left a bad taste in the mouth and left the field open for rumours, which, though unsubstantiated, could nevertheless have been avoided.
But despite these controversies, Gavaskar never lost the love and respect of the average Indian cricket fan since he always put in his best once he stepped on the field. He was a fierce competitor and took immense personal pride in his performance. One retained hope that no match was lost so long as he was at the crease. His capacity to bat on turning tracks in the second innings was phenomenal and it was only after his exit from the scene that one realised the extraordinary skills he brought to use in such situations to bail out the side.
After his retirement, Gavaskar edited a Mumbai-based sports publication for a couple of years but this did not turn out to be a successful venture. But the advent of private television channels into the arena of live cricket broadcast saw him make a smooth transition to the commentary box. He is a natural at this job, given his gift of the gab that helps him to communicate his thoughts in a clear and concise manner, wry sense of humour, vast experience as a player and immense knowledge about the game. Though he stayed away from any positions in the cricket administration in the country, he ensured that he remained on the right side of the persons in command of the affairs of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Indian Premier League.
In many ways Gavaskar can be considered as the first Indian professional in the world of sports. The fact that his playing career coincided with a period when professionalism was a dirty word made some of his actions unpopular. But he always remained true to his grain and never gave any of his sponsors cause for complaint. All those who have interacted with him came back with a positive story to recall.
Gavaskar celebrated his 75th birthday during the week that went by. Here is wishing the 'Little Master' many more years of happy and productive life in the years ahead. May his achievements and words inspire many upcoming young sportsmen to attain greatness.
(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a retired bureaucrat)
