Gavaskar : 60, not out

On July 10, last, the cricket loving people of the world celebrated 60^th birth day of legendary Padmbhushan Sunil Manohar Gavaskar who has been the strongest childhood images for a generation. It was amazing to watch him, frozen in his stance, having left the ball alone, bat pointing down the pitch, holding the stare of a glaring fast bowler. When Sunil Gavaskar started his career, India was lacking even a slow medium pacer for practice session. The feat of Gavaskar is unique in its nature as he achieved it by always facing the new balls delivered by the fastest bowlers of the world of their time – John Snow, Bob Willis, Ian Bothom of England, Holding, Marshall, Roberts, Garner of west Indies, Lilly, Thompson of Australia, Imran, Sarfaraj of Pakistan and Richard Hadlee of New Zealand in the very beginning of all the innings of his record studded career as the finest opening batsman, the world has ever produced. He always replied the speed and bounce of the fiery bowlers with his technique on all the fast wickets of the world. He loved to use his bat for his protection rather than wearing a helmet. His performance and achievements are as high as the crown of mother India – the great Himalayas.

Before Gavaskar took the rein of Indian batting in his strong hands, we were used to hear the story of defeats only by any cricket playing country. Who can forget his debut Test series in West Indies where the world watched a lad making centuries and double centuries in a row enabling his team to clinch the series from the mighty jaw of great Garry Sobers. The record of run scored by a new comer in his debut series is still unbeaten. The borne genius scored 650 plus in series with an average of 200 plus. India started tasting victory on foreign soil due to toil of unparallel Gavaskar. Before him it was a dream only. It will never go beyond the memory of cricket lovers, the most memorable day of Indian cricket, the 28^th day of December 1983, when the Little master Gavaskar, the history man of the world cricket, flicked Winston Davis of his toes to square leg for his 30^th Test hundred eclipsing the three-decade-old record of 29 centuries by Sir Don Bradman of Australia. It was a day, indeed, for every Indian to raise his head with pride and happiness. He was the first to break the 10,000 run barrier also.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulakar remembers Gavaskar on his 60^th birthday with his tributes, “ I am always in awe of him. I wanted to make the most of my good fortune in being privy to the wisdom of Sunil Gavaskar. When our coaches told us to follow a particular routine and we asked why, the reply was Sunil Gavaskar did this. He was the ultimate example, and to our coaches and to us, if he did something, then we had to do it as well. That’s also one of his great contributions to Indian cricket. Whichever way you may look at it, he is an institution. When he retired, for our generation, 34 Test hundreds was the ultimate ambition. For me, he still is and will continue to remain my hero.”

As a cricketer, he is well known to every body. But in his second innings after retirement, he has set up many milestones also as commentator, writer, administrator and advisor. The recipient of Padmabhushan award and the honour of Sheriff of Mumbai, Sunil Gavaskar has been inducted in the ICC hall of fame. The Border-Gavaskar trophy has been instituted in his honour.

It is the right time to confer Bharat Ratna to this one of the greatest sons of mother India, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar for his sky touching achievements and contributions to world cricket in general and Indian cricket in particular in the auspicious year of his 60^th birth day. Let us hope, government of India will think over in this direction.