For a man, who loved his centuries, Wednesday will usher in a 75. Sunil Gavaskar, one of cricket’s greatest batters, would rather take it one day at a time, just like he did while countering speed merchants and wily spinners, dealing with them one delivery at a time. The former India captain, the first man to scale ‘Mount 10000’ in Tests, will clock 75 summers and remains connected to the willow-game.
This is an umbilical cord he retains, first as a player till he bowed out in 1987, and now as a broadcaster. Many in the younger generation, who have only seen him as a commentator, may tend to associate him entirely with that role. A reality that even Richie Benaud had to deal with.
May be recency bias is at play or in these days of abbreviated words, reels and two-minute noodles, memory is short. | But for those who have seen him bat, Gavaskar was about eternity at the crease. In this era of flash-and-dash right from the openers through the middle-order to the finishers, he was that old-fashioned fixed deposit in a reputed bank.
Money was safe and hope was forever. When he batted with fellow openers, the late Chetan Chauhan, Anshuman Gaekwad or K. Srikkanth, and middle-order stalwarts like G.
R. Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohinder Amarnath, India knew it had a chance, especially with all-rounder Kapil Dev stepping in too. A straight bat and a steely resolve was second nature to Gavaskar.
One of the few, along with the great Viv Richards, to bat without a helmet, the .
