When India was not yet the world champion in cricket, there were Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli The barometer of national sentiment is here. It changes with a simple question posed: “Gavaskar? Is he out or playing?
Sunil Gavaskar was one of the most courageous players in cricket as well as being an Indian cricketer who in the 1970s and early to mid-1980s gave with one hand while steeling, spin and respect.
India’s economy has a hangover over the T20 World Cup win This is joined by tributes to Sunil Gavaskar on his seventy fifth birthday. He was the first player to score ten thousand test runs (10,122) and thirty test centuries – batting maestro.
Gavaskar speaks exclusively about his 75th birthday, his illustrious career and cricket concerns for Parami News:
How does it feel to be 75?
My ball used to swing around, I didn’t spin them! Even two international wickets I had been off straight deliveries that batsmen thought would turn but did not.
What enables you stay so fit at your age? You have travelled extensively for commentary assignments around the globe; do you still love broadcasting?
I don’t know what fitness means. If you say I am healthy because I have shoulder problems then it can’t be said that I am healthy at all since my lower back also hurts me. Since my playing days began I have always had shin splints. All I can do is walk fast because I cannot run.
For instance last year up until walking ten thousand steps daily had become a goal which however went down to seven thousand five hundred however generally it turns out to be much more than that. So covering matches involving India barely feels like work given that my success belongs to Indian cricket and cricket itself.
You seem so focused that even in a crowd you can read a Jeffrey Archer novel. Have you always been like this? How have you managed to control these powers?
Fortunately I still have this gift of focus that was given to me by God. My only problem is that I am often so caught up in what I’m reading or the music playing through my earphones and it upsets people if they try talking to me while I’m busy with my literature or listening to music with ear buds on.
Why are you such a fearless batsman? You were facing some of the best pace bowlers without wearing any helmet.
Throughout my life, I’ve been very short, so all the opposing new ball bowlers from school days onwards would try to scare me. So I was use to it but have to confess that in the 1971 first series against West Indies it was altogether a different experience seeing the ball coming at that height!
That’s why players in 70s were paid more than cricketers today. Do you feel satisfied now when rigthing on behalf of current cricketers?
It is great to see today’s cricketers getting their rightful rewards since they are the ones who draw people and sponsors towards cricket matches. Thank you for reminding and teaching this “internet generation” that some time back in the 70’s we took up stands on behalf of players in order to get better match day compensation and even allow our wives traveling with us.
This we do at risk of sacrificing our position in a team. And I take pride in saying that Chetan Chauhan (former India opener) and myself went to meet the then finance minister suggesting an exemption on match fees for Indian cricket team. We demand this not only for cricket but for other sports as well.
He responded by subjecting Test fee of Rs 5,000 per game to a standard deduction of 75% while ODIs remained tax free. During those days we barely played two or three one-day internationals yearly where each player earned about rupees thousand per game. The period came into effect until 1998 when India played about thirty ODIs earning $100,000 per match. Thus $300,000 is tax exempt!
Apart from appraisals what else takes your time?
Besides that I am actively associate with various foundations. One among them is ‘Heart2 heart’ foundation whose main aim is raising awareness about congenital heart disease in children and mobilizing finances for free surgeries conducted on them.
Another one is CHAMPS Foundation, the abbreviation for caring for, helping, assisting, motivating and promoting sportsmen. We have just celebrated 25th anniversary of the foundation which sends monthly cheques to international players (since 1999) who gave their everything in representing Indian sport and may not necessarily be well off at present.
Which are your favourite five Test knocks?
117* in Barbados when we had to save a Test (the fourth Test of the 1971 series against West Indies). In the final test at Trinidad we made 220 runs again needing only a draw to win the series. I got 57 at Old Trafford in wet, cold weather on a fast green top against England in 1971 India drew that game and went on to win the series one nil I didn’t wear a sweater because of superstition so it was pretty chilly. It was my best innings in Test cricket. In 1974, again at Old Trafford, equally cold I scored 101.
Gavaskar scored 86 out of 102 in 1976, at Port of Spain, where we won a test match against the West Indies by 404. This was my smoothest innings. The next morning I struggled for an hour to get the next 16 points to take it so That’s cricket for you!
What are other batsmen doing with the bat?
Gundappa Viswanath scored 97 against West Indies in Chennai in 1975. Sachin Tendulkar Kapil Dev said “175 not out” Also he had scored 114 vs Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup at Tunbridge Wells and added another one against Australia in the Perth Test of ’92, while Virender Sehwag got three runs short of two hundred and fifty-nine against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium in’09. There were some other matches like VVS Laxman’s 281 against Australia in Kolkata but I wasn’t present there at that time.
