During the nineteen seventies and the eighties, Sunil Gavaskar was popularly known as the `record breaking man’ or the `century man’.  He lost both these titles to a man from his own birthplace, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was born in Bombay on 10th July 1949. He is the nephew of Madhav Mantri, who was a former test wicket keeper for the Indian cricket team. Gavaskar is nicknamed `Sunny’ and `Little Master’ for his height that does not stretch beyond 5’4”. Even at that height, he was a good enough wall of defence, being probably the straightest bat that India has ever produced. He is, undoubtedly, India’s greatest opening batsman. He had unbelievable powers of concentration. Many bowlers used to consider his defence impenetrable. His was the hardest wicket to get. He played with equal ease both on the front as well as on the back foot. His balance was superb. He played all the strokes in the book. His straight drive was superlative.

Sunil Gavaskar was the first to break Sir Donald Bradman’s record of twenty nine test centuries in 1983. He went on to make thirty four test centuries and compiled 10,122 test runs before he retired. His passion for cricket began during his school days. In 1966, he was declared `best schoolboy cricketer of the year’. He made his first class debut playing for Vazir Sultan Colts XI in Bombay. He went on to play Ranji Trophy for Bombay until he was selected to the national team in 1970.

His selection brought about a turn of events in Indian cricket that I hail as the golden era, recalling them from my school days. The tours to West Indies and England in 1971 and the series win overseas under the able leadership of Ajit Wadekar made people sit up and take notice of India’s capability as a cricket playing nation. Gavaskar, Wadekar, Sardesai, Engineer, Solkar, Abed Ali and the magical spin quartet of Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan bent the knees of the mighty West Indies and England in 1971. These were the first important overseas victories that India had attained since its independence. Ever since these tours abroad, Sunil Gavaskar never looked back and went on to become a power to reckon with, possessing excellent batting technique. He has faced the most ferocious pace attacks of the world with just his classic `Sunny’ cap. In this regard, I hail him as a batsman superior even to Sachin Tendulkar.

Sunil Gavaskar, like Tendulkar, was the spine of India’s batting. The entire team’s batting revolved around him. He was a capable slip fielder too, taking more than a hundred slip catches in his career. After his induction into the test and later one day teams, Indian cricket started its climb upwards and gained admirable recognition. His one day campaign started on a humble note since 1975, but eight years later, his overall contribution in batting as an opener and fielding helped India pick up the One Day World Cup in England in 1983.

Sunil Gavaskar was declared Wisden’s `Cricketer of the Year’ in 1980. He has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan. He had been appointed Honorary Sheriff of Mumbai in 1994. He is currently the Advisor of the Indian Cricket Team and has written four books on cricket, the earliest being `Sunny Days’. He remains as India’s `Little Master of Cricket’.

Article Posted By : tahnak  On June 04, 2011lView All Articles

tahnak `Juror'

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Sunil Gavaskar , Cricket