Happy birthday Sunil Gavaskar: Recalling the memories of the perfect straight drive

Childhood is an innocent period of one’s life. Whoever tells you that it is the best, because you don’t have any worries, is telling you a lie. There were just so many bloody worries. Like I have not completed the homework given by drawing teacher; how do I attend school? What do I do if the teacher asks me to speak in front of the whole school?  Like today mother has made some god-awful gawar ka sabji, how can I avoid dinner tonight? But the biggest worry in my childhood used to be how will Indian cricket survive after this guy Sunil Gavaskar retires?

I swear this bothered me a lot. Really a lot. Ours was a humble household. No television, not even a radio set. Television was a rarity in the 80s and before 1984, everyone had a black and white television – not everyone, but for those who had a television set, it was black and white. There were just two television sets in my neighbourhood and I didn’t know these owners. But I had heard so much of this phenomenon called Gavaskar that I had to watch him play anyhow. Buying a ticket and watching him live was out of question. The least that I could do was to sneak in to the households that had TV, requesting five minutes and then just extend the stay for as long as I could.

It was the first Test match between India and West Indies and while I don’t remember most of his team mates, I remember the captain of the Windies team- Alwyn Kalicharan. India won the toss and decided to bat first. Gavaskar came to bat and I was wide-eyed. That’s it? He’s a little over five feet tall. How is he going to survive against these six-foot-and-above monster bowlers? There was Sylvester Clarke, there was Vanburn Holder… both spitting fire and Gavaskar playing with utmost ease. I managed to keep my foothold in the television house for a little longer, but Gavaskar played for two days almost and scored a double ton, hitting 29 boundaries and two sixes in the process.

I was extremely happy. Not only India had managed to draw the Test, I had seen some wonderful batting from someone who I had been worshipping before I saw him playing. He had fulfilled all my expectations of an idol. He was the worthy god. Yes, for those who have seen Gavaskar play that beautiful, beautiful straight drive, there is no better sight in the world cricket. Straight as an arrow as a Ravi Shastri would call it, bisecting the two fielders perfectly as a Sanjay Manjarekar would call it. And that famous pose - resting on the bat with right leg crossed against the left. The Srikrishna pose as Sushil Doshi, India’s premier Hindi commentator would call it. Gavaskar was indeed the Lord Krishna of Indian cricket back then - saviour of the Draupadi called Indian cricket. He used to hold the Gowardhan of Indian batting on his straight bat.

The expectations of the guy were just too much. He tried to fulfil them in as many ways as he could. He had a forgettable 1983 World Cup, but held some sharp catches in the slips.

Everyone remembers how in 1985 India, defending a modest total of 125, bowled out Pakistan for 87. But no one remembers some incredulous catches snapped by Gavaskar in the first slip. The 1985 World Championship was rocked by Ravi Shastri, K Srikkanth, L Shivaramakrishnan and Sadanand Vishwanath, but the proud captain was Sunil Gavaskar.

The two innings that will stay with me forever, however, will be his defiant innings of 96 against Pakistan in 1987 in Bangalore and his maiden and only One Day International hundred in 1987 World Cup. Heroic will be an understatement to describe both. India had a chance in that Bangalore Test till Gavaskar was occupying the crease. India lost by just 16 runs on a track that was turning square. Iqbal Qasim ran through the Indian bating line-up but Gavaskar held fort, picking Qasim variations of his palm. There was just one mistake and that came when the score was 180. India just couldn’t take it from there and lost the match and the series.

And that rage-filled century. The situation was such that India had to score runs in a hurry against New Zealand if they didn’t want to play Pakistan in the semi-finals and Kapil Dev had said a few words ahead of the match that were not too kind for Gavaskar who had played a bit slow in an earlier win. That day, Gavaskar brought out the Angry Young Man and smashed everything in sight. Kiwis had come prepared for Srikkanth, but Gavaskar unleashed a different kind of fury on them and bludgeoned away a century that turned out to be his first and the last in ODIs. He did this when he was running temperature.

One had hoped for a glorious end to Gavaskar’s career- helping India win another World Cup. But that was not to be. He got out for just four runs at Wankhede stadium against England and the unkind Mumbai public booed him. They had given him a standing ovation just a few minutes earlier. The ruthless crowd didn’t remember this could be his last innings.

Gavaskar went out on his own terms- a feat almost no Indian cricketer has achieved since then. And he quoted Vijay Merchant his own idol while doing so- quit when people will ask ‘why’ and not ‘why not’. Sachin Tendulkar took over the Indian cricket and then there have been the Sehwags, the Dhonis and the Kohlis. But Gavaskar will always remain the First God.

Watch how Sunil Gavaskar battled the fearsome West Indies bowling attack in 1983