Sunil Gavaskar's Birthday: Controversial innings in World Cup and predictions about Imran Khan
"Rambo, be careful. The one you are copying on TV could be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.
India's great batsman Sunil Gavaskar has as much treasure as he has in the form of interesting events.
Born in Mumbai on July 10, 1949, Sunil Gavaskar ended his illustrious Test career with 10,122 runs and 34 centuries in 125 matches, making him the leading run-scorer and highest-scoring batsman in Test cricket at the time.
Gavaskar has also written four books. His interesting and simple style does not let the readers go away from him.
As a commentator, their analysis and comments are also important. He is also well versed in the art of copying cricketers, which is a good indication of his sense of humor.
Restful sleep on the fisherman's side
Sunil Gavaskar has started his autobiography (Sunny Days) in a very interesting way. I would never have become a cricketer and this book would never have been written if the eagle eyes of my uncle Narayan Masurikar had not fallen on me on the day of my birth.
Incidentally, on Sunil Gavaskar's birthday, his uncle Narayan Mussoorie came to the hospital to see him and saw a small hole in his left earlobe. When he returned the next day, he did not see the hole in Gavaskar's ear.
They shouted that this was not the child they had seen the first day. An emergency was declared at the hospital and the search for the child with a hole in the ear began. It turned out that Gavaskar was sleeping soundly next to a fisherman.
In fact, the babies changed while bathing and cleaning.
Gavaskar writes in his book Sun Days: "I often wonder what would have happened if I hadn't had that hole in my ear and my uncle couldn't recognize me." Maybe I would have grown up as a fisherman and caught fish somewhere near the west coast.
Mother's nose injured by a sharp shot
Sunil Gavaskar says of his first relationship with cricket, "I remember my childhood when I used to play with my mother on the small balcony of my house. She used to bowl me a tennis ball every day.
"One day I hit a hard blow that went straight to my mother's nose and started bleeding. I panicked but my mother washed her nose without being angry with me and as soon as the bleeding stopped she started bowling me again but after that day I started playing defensive strokes.
Gavaskar says, "My uncle Madhu Mantri had represented India in four Test matches." Whenever I went to his house, I would be happy to see the souvenirs in his room and the jerseys and blazers of the Indian team.
"One day I asked him if I could take one of them. His answer was that he had to work up a sweat. I have to work hard for it. It was a lesson I will never forget. "
Rival players pulled out sticks and knives
Sunil Gavaskar was the most successful batsman of St. Xavier's School and College, Mumbai. He got into the habit of scoring double centuries in student cricket but he does not forget a match in which sticks and knives came out.
"In the final, St. Xavier's College competed with Siddharth College," he says. When Ashok Mankad of our team scored a century, some of our college boys brought a car in the middle of the field and started wearing necklaces to Ashok.
When Kiran Adhikari of Siddharth College scored a century, his teammates came to the ground on a motorcycle and started beating Kiran. But when Siddharth College had to score 20 runs to win, their last batsman was a clean LBW but the umpire He was not given out because he loved his life.
In fact, the boys sitting outside Siddhartha College had taken out sticks and knives. Even after the match, the boys broke the car windows. A rival college boy did me a favor and got me out safely. '
Triple century at mother's request
Gavaskar had played a 327-run innings for Mumbai against Pune in the Inter-University Championship, thus breaking Ajit Wadikar's 12-year-old record of 324 runs.
"The day I broke the record, my mother's phone rang the previous evening and she said, 'Fulfill one of my wishes.' What did I ask? They say I want you to break the record of 324 runs.
"In the first match of the championship, when I was bowled out for 226, my teammate Ovi Kamak told me about this record. Interestingly, when I was bowled out for 269 in an innings of 327," While playing, Ovi Kamak reminded me again that this time you have a good chance, don't waste it. "I'm glad it became a record and my mother's wish came true."
Controversial 36-run innings in the World Cup
The 1975 One Day Cricket World Cup was introduced. The first match of this World Cup was played between hosts England and India at Lord's. Batting first, England scored 334 for four in the allotted 60 overs.
India's innings was started by Sunil Gavaskar and Eknath Solkar. The Indian team batted 60 overs and scored only 132 runs for the loss of three wickets, but more surprisingly, Gavaskar was unbeaten on just 36 runs from the start to the end of the innings. He played 29 overs (174 balls) out of 60 overs in the Indian innings and hit only one four.
At a time when Gavaskar was batting so slowly, not only the fans but also the Indian players themselves were puzzled as to what was happening.
Even today, questions are being raised about this innings as to why it was playing so slowly. Some believe that Gavaskar had recorded his protest against the appointment of Venkat Raghun as captain in his place.
Some say he was unhappy with the team's selection of spinners instead of fast bowlers, but according to former Test cricketer Tony Lewis, any differences could have been resolved before the match, but cost thousands of pounds of spectators and millions. It was not appropriate for the sponsors to suffer.
Speaking to England's Daily Express two days after the innings, Indian team manager Ram Chand said it was a shameful and selfish performance that he had witnessed. Gavaskar told me the reason was slow wicket which was difficult to play shots on but it was stupid because England had scored 334 runs on the same wicket.
Sunil Gavaskar himself did not say anything about the innings at the time but after a while he called his innings the worst and said that he thought many times to give up wickets and get out.
Interestingly, he also revealed that he was caught by wicketkeeper Alan Knott on the second ball of the innings but neither the bowler nor the wicketkeeper appealed.
Sobers said you don't see another fielder?
Gavaskar batted brilliantly in his first Test series against the West Indies and scored 774 runs. West Indies captain Sir Gary Sobers dropped three catches in the series.
The third time he dropped an easy catch, he said to Gavaskar, "Why are you following me?" Can't see another fielder? '
He played the role of a hero in a Marathi film Sauli Premachi in 1980 but the film flopped. In 1988, he appeared as a guest actor in the Hindi film Mala Mal.
Gavaskar has also sung a Marathi song on which Lata Mangeshkar tweeted that Gavaskar is a memorable chapter of cricket but he also has an understanding of music.
She is a talented singer. There are few living legends like him.
Pakistan will win World Cup
The Pakistani cricket team was in bad shape in the 1992 World Cup. In the first five matches, she managed to win only one match.
In such a situation, who would have thought that this team would be the winner of the World Cup, but in the meanwhile only one voice was echoing in the air which was constantly saying that the Pakistani team can win the World Cup.
It was Gavaskar who did not know why the Pakistani cricket team was so trusted that they were looking at him as a World Cup winner. His prediction came true.
After the World Cup, Sunil Gavaskar came to Lahore at the invitation of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended a special ceremony at Gaddafi Stadium to mark the victory of the World Cup.
"I had the opportunity to go to Imran Khan's house for dinner, where Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also came and recited verses," says Gavaskar. It was a wonderful opportunity. "
"Don't copy Imran, he can become PM"
After the World Cup, another prediction of Sunil Gavaskar about Imran Khan came true and people started saying, "Isn't Gavaskar an astrologer?"
Sunil Gavaskar and Rameez Raja were in the commentary box during a match of the 2012 Asia Cup.
Referring to Raja Imran Khan on this occasion, Rameez said, "View Richards used to bat very aggressively in this era and Sunil Gavaskar could easily remove himself from the line of Imran Khan's swing balls.
"I was fielding in the short league at that time. In this situation, Imran Khan used to say every ten minutes, look how it plays."
Rameez Raja uttered this sentence in the voice of Imran Khan to which he immediately said, "Be careful Rambo, the one you are copying on TV could be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan."
Imran Khan advised not to retire
Imran Khan had invited Gavaskar to his swearing-in ceremony after he became the Prime Minister. Gavaskar had apologized for attending the function for personal reasons but on the same day in his newspaper article he had detailed his old friendship with Imran Khan.
He wrote in this article - this is 1986. Imran Khan and I were eating at a restaurant in London.
"I told Imran Khan that I intend to retire from international cricket after the Indian team's tour of England. Imran Khan said that you cannot retire because the Pakistan team is going to visit India next year and I am an Indian. I want to beat the team on its soil and if you are not in this team then it will not be fun.
Imran Khan told him, "I want us to play against each other for the last time."
Gavaskar's last Test was against Pakistan in Bangalore in March 1987 in which he played an innings of 96 runs but Pakistan won that Test by a dramatic 16 runs and won the Test series for the first time on Indian soil.
How did Gavaskar solve the problem of integration?
When Pakistani batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq arrived on a tour of England after an excellent batting performance in the 1992 World Cup, he felt that he could not bat confidently on short pitched balls, so he decided to consult Gavaskar, who these days Were in england
Inzamam-ul-Haq says: This was my first tour of England and I had no idea to face short pitched balls in the conditions there. I met Gavaskar during a charity match and explained my problem.
He said a very short and simple solution is to get the idea of short pitched bowling and bouncers out of your mind because when you just think about it then you will not be able to get out of it and the bowler will trap you. So try to play every ball in a normal way.
Inzamam-ul-Haq says, "I followed his advice in net practice and I have never had a problem with a bouncer in my entire career."
Gift of sweet cheese from Miandad
Apart from Imran Khan, Sunil Gavaskar has also been close friends with Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad.
Sanandan Leyle, a senior journalist in India, says that Sunil Gavaskar has been very fond of fragrant sweet betel nut (chaliya) and at one time Javed Miandad used to regularly send him sweet chaliya from Pakistan.