Thursday, July 9, 2009

Recalling the Sunny Days - He wore India on his sleeve

Hail Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, the world's greatest opening batsman across eras! Sunil Gavaskar was born on July 10th 1949. Feels like he just retired a few years ago after that masterful near-double in the unofficial (Bicentennial?) test at Lords. Never wore a helmet against the W.Indian Quicks in the 70s-80s and never backed down, ever. Today's NFL-style padded up millionaire cricketers on benign pitches resembles a Bollywood poor-joke compared to those days of real cricket. One of the Windies fans (Lord Relator) even wrote a calypso in awe of his batting ....

I recall his jokes during his lecture at IIT-Madras a decade and half go.
Q. Why did you refuse the MCC membership ?
A. That's incorrect. I love the Madras Cricket Club and am happy to be an honorary member" (laughter among the entire campus who turned up on the occasion, well after his retirement).
Q. Sir, we meant the Marylebone Cricket Club ..
A. Oh that. Who cares about some Firangi Cricket club. I'm honored to be a part of MCC this week. (chuckles). Audience goes nuts and eats out of his hands afterwards.

Many may not agree with some of his potshots at the Aussies (especially the one against Hookes), and his commentary may sometimes put u to sleep, but every thing else that Sunny does is just fine with me. If only that idiotic owner of the Kolkata KR T20 circus had listened to SMG and fired Buchanan before this year's edition, instead of after ...

And yes, Buchanan has conferred with England before the ashes. He's even spilled secrets. Any chance of an English victory is now extinguished. A clever Aussie plot!

3 comments:

  1. Which year was he in IITM? - Gopal.

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  2. 1992 or 1993 - i think. pretty cool.

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