Cricket's Greatest #4: Sunil Gavaskar

Cricket, like everything life has to offer, in not immune to change. What makes a cricketer, great in today’s world is very different from what made a cricketer great say, in the 70’s or 80’s. The benchmarks for measuring the greatness of a batsman have also changed, radically. Hence, comparing cricketers across generations is isn’t as insightful an exercise as people tend to believe it to be. Comparing a Sachin with a Bradman or a Gavaskar can only be relevant as far as aspects such as technique, style, impact etc. allow. These are qualities that unlike statistics cannot be measured. Although numbers play a huge role in identifying a legend, these immeasurable qualities go a long way in assessing greatness of a sportsman. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is one of such great legends of not only Indian cricket, but world cricket at large.

Sunil Gavaskar (called ‘Sunny Bhai’ by his teammates) made his debut against the West Indies in 1971. I am sure he would agree that he had no clue that one day he would consider the Caribbean islands as his second home. Sunny went on to amass a mammoth 774 runs in his debut series. Most people would say that the West Indies bowling line-up wasn’t the best at the time, but for a debutant to play the way he did in alien conditions was a strong indicator of things to come. It was established from the very start of his career that he had a defense that would take the best of balls delivered from the best of bowlers to get past it. He had the most perfect of techniques to have ever have been in the game. He played with a straight bat and would leave the ball inches outside the off-stump. Align that with a super-human power of concentration and patience, and you would get a batsman who is closing in on test-batting perfection.

He became the first batsman in the world to accumulate 10,000 test runs, decorated with 34 centuries. These are numbers that are enough to make any batsmen proud and claim greatness. But one has to read between the lines to get a semblance about Sunny’s credentials as a batsman. The West Indies of the 70’s and 80’s had a fearsome battery of fast bowlers. Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Holding, Robert Croft and the list goes on. It is indeed true, that Sunny hardly came across a line-up that could boats of all the greats in it together, but he had to play what he got. Just imagine even two of those greats coming at a batsman, without a helmet, on hard-bouncy tracks in the West Indies. It would have been quite a battle. And Gavaskar scored 13 tons against the West Indies. It’s a testimony to the sheer grit, determination and skill of the man. Gavaskar averages over 99 at the Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. He was even spotted shaking leg or say, doing a jig at one of the grounds in the West Indies. What an affair he has had with the place, the place that was the home country for his childhood hero, Rohan Kanhai.

For the cricket lovers of today, it would not be easy to imagine that every team in the era of Gavaskar had at least one world class fast bowler in their ranks. England had Bob Willis, New Zealand had Hadley, Pakistan had Imran Khan, Australia Lille and Thompson. Hence, apart from the West Indies, most teams had quality attacks more often than not. Times surely, have changed. Cricket wouldn’t have been such a batsman’s game in that age. Sunil Gavaskar amassed all those hundreds and double hundreds against high-quality bowling. There wasn’t any attack that was a ‘help-yourself’ attack for the batsmen.

It is true that Gavaskar wasn’t a very successful ODI player but he belonged to the age where ODI cricket was beginning to find its feet and moreover, it wasn’t as important as the 5-day game by any stretch of imagination. As a captain, Sunny tried to get the best out of the meager resources he had at his disposal. Many used to say that Gavaskar played too slowly and wasn’t a team man. On the contrary he was entirely a team man. As an opener it was his job to hold one end up and play for as long as he could, especially if the success of the batting line-up depended so-very heavily on him. For those who remember Indian cricket of the 90’s when, Tendulkar’s dismissal meant a virtual end of the batting effort, you would be able to feel the similar pulse about Sunny.

Sunil Gavaskar retired from cricket in the 1986-87 season, after a magnificent knock of 96 against Pakistan, on a turning track in Bangalore; thus, adhering to the famous saying in cricket, ‘Retire, when people ask why? And not, when they ask why not?’ Gavaskar, besides a champion batsman, was one of the safest first-slip fielders the game has ever seen. Ever since, Sunny has played various roles in the BCCI and the ICC. Like most great former cricketers, he too has had a fair share of controversies. This is bound to happen as he candidly expresses himself on commentary and while writing for newspapers. Gavaskar commands great respect amongst his contemporaries and the cricketers of today’s generation. The solid right hander has written a few cricket books, amongst which, Sunny Days (his autobiography) and Idols are the most popular. His candid self and sometimes, tongue-in-cheek humor comes out in the books as well, along with his astute observations about cricket and cricketers. The trophy which, Australia and India compete for has been named after Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border as the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

I was listening to an Imran Khan interview about a week back and one thing he said about Gavaskar opened my eyes to the impact Sunny has had on Indian cricket. Imran said that it was the likes of Gavaskar for India and Viv Richards for West Indies, who took the fight to the English. What he meant was that Gavaskar was extra eager and resolute in the face of the British because of his awareness of the colonial past of India. These are aspects that make Gavaskar a champion. Players like Gavaskar raise their game to the next level when the need arises. These are the special qualities of a special cricketer that tend to get overshadowed by his mammoth statistical accomplishments. Cricketers like Gavaskar become inspirations for the people of a nation and the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid dream big, dream to aspire and go on to become inspirations for subsequent generations. These immeasurable qualities are what that creates legends such as Sunny Gavaskar.

and #3in our Cricket’s Greatest series.