Gavaskar, who? And other stories

Sunil Gavaskar had a hall full of people in splits recently at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. Gavaskar turned 75 in July this year, and to celebrate this milestone, senior journalists Debasish Datta and Shyam Bhatia - the latter owns a cricket museum in the UAE - launched a book called Sunny G , an anthology of tributes and anecdotes on Gavaskar. When he was called on stage though, Gavaskar reeled off even more previously unheard stories from his early days in the Indian team. Gavaskar humorously took issue to the fact that Datta had invited him on stage saying, "Gavaskar needs no introduction," and he was in no mood to let that go.

"I was a little disappointed that Debasish, who I've known for such a long time, said that I don't need an introduction," Gavaskar said. "When you're retired from the game almost 40 years, you do need an introduction, because almost certainly only nice things are going to be said about you. So it's always good to have an introduction, rather than saying, 'Sunil Gavaskar needs no introduction.' Of course, I need an introduction.

"After so many years I want to listen to some good things said about me. It also takes me back to another incident which concerned my uncle, Madhav Mantri . As those of you who follow the game know, he played four Test matches for India. And he was called for a school sports-day presentation. And the principal of the school asked him, 'How do I introduce you?' At that stage I was the captain of the Indian team. So he says, 'Look, none of these boys know me, I retired many years ago. So you just ask all these boys, 'Who is your favourite cricketer?' And then say I'm his uncle. Simple.

"The principal said, 'Very good idea.' So in the assembly, he turned and he asked the students, 'Boys, before I introduce the chief guest here today who has come to distribute the prizes, I want to ask all of you, who is your favourite cricketer?' And in one voice they said, 'Kapil Dev!'

"So you can imagine what happened. Now you know I need an introduction."

Gavaskar rolled the years back to 1971 next, when he made his Test debut in the West Indies in a historic series win for India.

"When I first came into the Indian team, I was fortunate enough that none other than Garfield Sobers dropped two really simple catches [in my debut series ] that gave me an opportunity to bat, get another life and then score some runs. And we won. We beat the West Indies for the first time. Big celebrations were on here [back home] at the Brabourne Stadium where the BCCI had called everybody, there were thousands of people there. It was the first time we had beaten West Indies.

"The master of ceremonies was introducing the players, so he started by saying, 'This is Ajit Wadekar, the captain. The first captain of India to win a series against West Indies.' He said all the nice things, like about [Srinivas] Venkataraghavan, he got five wickets in a crucial game, bowled Sobers around his legs with his turning ball. Eknath Solkar, gutsy cricketer. Dilip Sardesai, renaissance man of Indian cricket. He just went on and on. I was the baby of the team then, so I expected that I would be introduced last. When it came to me, instead of introducing me by my name, the master of ceremonies said, 'Let me now introduce you to the person Garry Sobers dropped three-four times."

Two months later, India beat England at home for the first time in a Test series, and Gavaskar had a hand in that too.

"Over there, those who follow the game know that John Snow gave me a little shove [during the first Test, at Lord's ] while I was looking to take a single and I was sent sprawling. And I had to get to the crease on my hands and knees to regain the crease. It became a big incident. He was dropped from the next Test for indiscipline. Again, the introductions were the same, [Ajit] Wadekar, Venkataraghavan, Bishan Bedi, and [Bhagwath] Chandrasekhar, took six wickets for 38. He was the one who turned the game around. Again, I was the baby of the team. He [the host] said, 'And let me introduce you to the man John Snow shoved to the ground.' Naam to lene ka baat hi nahi ho raha tha [There was no mention of my name]."

Everyone present at the CK Nayudu Hall - former team-mates, Gavaskar's family, journalists and many others - was roaring with laughter. But Gavaskar was not done yet.

"At the start of my career also, when I was a school kid, I was always Madhav Mantri's nephew, never Sunil Gavaskar. So I was getting to a stage where I was thinking, 'What do I need to do [to get noticed]?' And then in the middle, some three-four years after the twin 1971 wins, we had a lean period. That's the cycle of life. There were no felicitations, no invitations to go anywhere. So no question of any introduction.

"I had once invited one of the best batters from my generation across all teams - Gundappa Viswanath. He used to come to our house for dinner. My parents loved him, everybody loved him; who didn't love Gundappa? And, well, I didn't know what was going on at that stage, but he and my sister fell in love, they got married. Soon after that, India started to win again and we started going to all these events and functions. And guess what, at all these functions I used to be introduced as Viswanath's brother-in-law. Debu da , now you know [why I need an introduction]."

When Khalid AH Ansari, the founder of Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day took the stage, he summed up the mood of the evening: "The next book on him should be named 'Funny G', not 'Sunny G'."