By Prof Satya Narayan Misra*

For an Indian who broke Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries by hooking Malcolm Marshall in the Delhi Test in 1983, turning 75 this Wednesday is indeed a milestone for every Indian. The way, he dealt with the speed merchants of the West Indies dealing with them one delivery at a time, is indeed a record. Javed Miandad believes, even Sachin Tendulkar cannot match Sunil Gavaskar. Many youngsters who see him as a broadcaster associate him with that role, much like Richie Benaud, a wonderful leg spinner and a thrilling captain. But for those like me who have seen him bat and had the rare fortune of meeting him, Gavaskar was about eternity at the crease. This classist could segue from an immaculate straight drive off Thomson’s thunderbolt to a pugnacious hook off Marshall, to a languid late flick off his legs to a wily Qadir. He was the first man to scale Mount 1000, and was that old-fashioned fixed deposit in a reputed nationalized bank! Money was safe and hope was forever as long as he was there.

A straight bat with superb balance, and steely resolve he was one of the few along with Vivian Richards, who batted without a helmet against the barrage of short-pitched bowling of the pace quartet of West Indies, or speed merchants of Pakistan or Australia for two decades in the 70s & 80s. Though he did experiment with a skull cap briefly towards the twilight of his career, the recurring image about him is the floppy hat and the languid walk to the crease with a bat seemingly broad enough to guard a fortress! Despite his lack of height- fractionally less than 5 feet 5 inches- he uses the crease in masterly fashion, his quick foot work enabling him virtually to create length for himself. His bias was for the front of the wicket, from the cover round to midwicket; but at need, he has all the strokes.

While his record against all teams, particularly against West Indies with an average of 65.4, has been remarkable, England was not his sweet spot till he scored a spectacular 221 at the Oval in 1979 and almost won the match for India. Set to win 383 in 498 minutes, they failed by nine runs. John Arlott, the famous cricket writer writes in his book Greatest Batsmen “Gavaskar’s effort, though, remains a peak of cricket history”. Richie Benaud, who was commentating called it as ‘the greatest innings he has seen at Oval’. Gavaskar does not have very many happy memories of the iconic Lord’s ground. A towering John Snow once shoved tiny Sunil at Lords in 1971. As if to avenge for the ignominy, he scored a magnificent 188 at Lords against the MCC in 1987. In his World XI squad Dickie Bird, the most charismatic umpire the game has seen, includes Sunil Gavaskar to be the opening partner to Barry Richards. Dickie writes in his Autobiography: Gavaskar was a tremendous player off both back and front foot and capable of playing magnificent shots all round the wicket. The very fact a Yorkshire guy has preferred Gavaskar over Boycott, a fellow Yorkshire guy, speaks volumes about his excellent right-hand opening bat’s ability.

He was largely responsible for India’s first overseas series victory over the West Indies in 1971, scoring 4 centuries, including a century and a double century in the same test, a feat unequaled even by Sachin and Virat. In the third test at Port of Spain in 1976 when Lloyd asked India to chase 406 in the second innings, he scored a magnificent 102 against a fierce pace attack of Roberts and Holding to win a seemingly impossible match. In the tour of Australia in 1977-78, when Packer started the Rebel World Series cricket, he scored three consecutive centuries at Brisbane, Perth, and Melbourne. It prompted Bobby Simpson, the Australian captain, to ask youngsters to watch the way he was straight driving Thomson’s thunderbolts. Imran called him the 'the most compact batsman he has bowled to’, when he finished the series against Pakistan in 1978-79 with an average of 89.4 runs. Though India lost the series, Gavaskar stood rock-like amongst the ruins.

I saw him in a test match at Feroze Shah Kotla for the first time in 1976, when Bob Willis with his long wiry legs ran in to him almost from the boundary line. It was a frightening sight in the haze of Delhi winter. He missed the first outswinger and the second and third thudded in to his pads. The umpire ruled him not out. My heart sank, till he drove the fourth ball to the extra cover boundary before any fielder could move. The crowd came out of the deep freeze of doubt in to a chorus of joy. I once ran into him in 1978, when I asked how could he play relentless pace with ease when no Indian batsmen showed similar spunk. He said he once met Vijay Manjrekar who had played Trueman at his furious pace and scored 133 at Headingly in 1952. Manjrekar just opened his shirt and showed the blue patches that Trueman’s short pitched balls had left behind on his unpadded chest. Manjrekar said: I was not afraid to be hit and always played under the line off a lifting delivery rather than move away. These two lessons, freedom from fear and, ability to duck unhurriedly under a lifting delivery has stood him in good stead. He also confided that he has been hit by Marshall a couple of times! Freedom from fear, Franklin Roosevelt wrote was the hallmark of democracy. It was Gavaskar’s mantra against fast bowling.

Gavaskar is a sheer joy as a commentator. His technical knowledge of the game is peerless. The way he observed how Virat’s body was a little imbalanced, which was leading to his poor run of scores in T20 matches till he played that sublime innings in the finals, was spot on. Gavaskar along with Dravid, Sachin and Virat are the technically most compact world class players that India has produced. While Gavaskar stood like a wall and did not allow India to lose most matches, Sachin fired embers of win in the 90s. Virat, as Imran and Steve Waugh say, is a shade better in crucial matches where India is chasing a win, as compared to Sachin. It was, therefore, unfortunate that Gavaskar made the avoidable remark that Virat needs to improve the scoring rate. His action to take Chetan Chauhan out of the field when he was declared LBW to Lilee in Melbourne in 1981 was very childish and smacked of petulance. His past failure against Dennis rankled him. Yet, with all his warts and moles, Sunil remains India’s best opening bat, commentator, and fountain of anecdotes and raconteur par excellence. Once asked, if short height is any way an advantage, Gavaskar repartee: We, the batsmen with short height are closer to the ground. We smell the bowlers better and tame speedsters with greater ease! But like all colossus, he had the feet of clay.

Prof SN Misra is a cricket buff

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of Sambad English