Dubai: Legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar, who was recently conferred with the Golden Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai (SJAM), has a reservoir of interesting anecdotes from his career.
When away from the mike as commentator and chatting informally with journalists on different occasions, he has often narrated many interesting tales.
After receiving the Golden Jubilee Lifetime Award that included a certificate that has details of his 34 centuries, a caricature collage of him, and a silver salver from former Indian Test stars Madhav Apte and Ajit Wadekar on Sunday at the CK Nayudu Hall of the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai, Gavaskar enthralled journalists with an incident wherein Wadekar had hidden him in a toilet to avoid West Indies great Gary Sobers from touching him.
During the 1971 tour to West Indies, in the second Test Sobers had dropped a simple catch offered by Gavaskar, who made his debut, while batting on 12.
In his next Test, Sobers dropped Gavaskar again and the Little Master went on to get a century.
When Lance Gibbs, the West Indies spinner, teased Sobers for those dropped catches, Sobers suddenly declared that from then on he would touch Gavaskar every day for luck.
What followed was that in the next Test at Barbados, Sobers cracked 178.
In the following Test too Sobers touched Gavaskar resulting in another hundred. That’s when skipper Wadekar asked Gavaskar to hide from Sobers and forcibly locked him in the toilet. And in that innings, Abid Ali got Sobers out for a duck! On returning to the dressing room, Wadekar triumphantly announced that he hadn’t let Sobers touch Gavaskar and hence his (Sobers) quick exit.
SJAM’s first lifetime achievement award was presented to badminton legend Nandu Natekar in 2012.
Wonderful occasion
Gavaskar, who flew into Dubai soon after the felicitation, spoke to Gulf News: “It was a wonderful occasion; and to follow Nandu Natekar, the great badminton player whose big fan I have always been, is a huge honour. I had pointed out at the event about the big role that the sports journalists of Mumbai had played in my career because they were the ones who first published my scores in schools cricket and brought me to the notice of the authorities. Subsequently they also played a big part in my growing years in Indian cricket.”
Responding to a query on the transition from a player to a writer, Gavaskar said: “That transition has been quite a smooth process for me. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunities, both in the print and the electronic media, where I have been able to keep in touch with the modern game.”
When asked whether it was true that he would never read a newspaper during a match, the legendary batsman said: “I used to read everything apart from the cricket report. I would read the front pages and other sports but not the actual match report only because I did not want to get influenced by what was written there.”
Talking about the turn out for the event in Mumbai, which included his son Rohan Gavaskar and Anil Kumble, Gavaskar said: “It was nice to be with my first captain Wadekar, Madhav Apte, Anil Kumble and the other Team India support staff who brought the good wishes and congratulations from the current team; so it was really wonderful.”
Real impact
Rohan then narrated an incident of how Gavaskar’s timely intervention saved a family. “One of his other strengths is courage. This is an incident from 1993 after the infamous bomb blasts in Mumbai, which left a real impact on me. We were standing on our terrace a few days later after the blasts when we saw that a hate mob had cornered a family.
“We realised their intentions were not good towards the family ... dad saw that and ran down and confronted the hate mob. He then told the mob, ‘Whatever you are going to do to that family, you will first do that to me,’ Fortunately better sense prevailed and the family was allowed to go their way. It takes a special kind of courage to put your life at risk and confront a hate mob, and I guess it also takes a special kind of courage to face the kind of bowlers he did in his career without a helmet.”
G Vishwanath, president of the SJAM, noting the reason as to why they had selected Gavaskar for the award, said: “We wanted a personality whose contribution was all encompassing. Our primary criteria is also to have someone who has popularised the sport. After he made his first class debut in 1966 in Moin Ud Dowlah in Hyderabad, he now has a 50 year connect with Indian cricket. He was also the sheriff of Mumbai and a winner of the Padma Bhushan and many other honours.”
Incidentally, the invite for the function said, ‘SJAM felicitates Gavaskar, who for 50 years has contributed to the game as a player, captain, columnist, author, television commentator, Chairman of the Cricket Committee of International Cricket Council, Director of the National Cricket Academy, architect of restructuring Ranji Trophy, Chairman of the Technical Committee, BCCI, and the President of BCCI for Indian Premier League (2014).
