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One batsman to bat for my life? Sunny Gavaskar

Expert
1st March, 2011
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4094 Reads
ICC World XI International Chairman of Selectors Sunil Gavaskar. AAP Image/Julian Smit

ICC World XI International Chairman of Selectors Sunil Gavaskar. AAP Image/Julian Smit

David Lord’s post on Don Bradman being daylight ahead of Sachin Tendulkar on Monday created a stir. Same was the case with my posts on Tendulkar’s greatness in The Roar in February and December 2010.

Both Don and Sachin remain magnificent batsmen, legendary and wonderful to watch. Roarers have argued both ways, many correctly pointing out that greats from different eras should never be compared.

I am an unashamed hero-worshipper of both these master bats.

Not only them, but also of Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond, Everton Weekes, Neil Harvey, Graeme Pollock, Garry Sobers, Vivian Richards, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting.

To me, a cricket tragic with many years of cricket under the belt, the greatest opening batsman of all time remains India’s gritty Sunil Gavaskar.

“What?!!”, I hear you roar. But I have worn a steel helmet and am ready for tomatoes from you, Roarers.

Forget statistics, although Gavaskar has a healthy average of 51.12 from 125 Tests, which is far from Bradmanesque but impressive all the same.

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You perhaps would not have travelled miles to see him bat, as you would to watch fireworks from Bradman, Keith Miller, Sobers, Richards, Lara, Hayden or Tendulkar.

Nor was Gavaskar as elegant as Hammond, Harvey, Frank Worrell, Pollock or Mark Waugh.

So why do I place him so high? Firstly, the 5’5” Indian opener played for a weak team in 1970s and 80s which collapsed at the drop of a hat.

Short in stature but huge in achievements, ‘Sunny’ Gavaskar to me is up there with the best.

Just have a look at the attack he faced: Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee from Australia; Mike Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner from the West Indies; Imran Khan and Wasim Akram from Pakistan and John Snow from England. Awesome!

And to open the innings against these express head-hunters without a helmet for 95 per cent of his career and with a primitive skull cap at the tail-end of his playing days!

No batsman in the history of the game has faced such an attack.

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Bradman had to encounter the bodyline menace from Harold Larwood and Bill Voce in 1932-33 and his batting average dropped to 56.57.

True, Hammond had to face the chin music of Ray Lindwall and Miller, Harvey had to stand up to fiery Fred Trueman, Frank ‘Typhoon’ Tyson, Wes Hall, Roy Gilchrist and Charlie “Chucker” Griffith.

Allan Border had to subdue the Windies and Paki menace of 1980s, but he did not have to take strike against ‘Lilian Thomson’.

Also, none of the above batsmen was an opener.

Coming to this millennium, the attack faced by Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting appears tame in comparison. Apart, perhaps, from Dale Steyn, Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar, no bowler can be described as life-threatening.

Certainly not in this helmeted era.

Tyson, Thommo, Roberts, Holding, Marshall, and Lillee all put the fear of God into a batsman, especially one whose head, torso and limbs were not protected.

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Mention the name Gavaskar to an Australian and he will remember the Melbourne Test “walk out” of February 1981. I agree it was regrettable. But against decades of high achievements, his few indiscretions have to be condoned.

Last October, Gavaskar became the first non-Australian Bradman Honouree, ahead of Sobers, Richards, Botham, Imran, Boycott, Hadlee, Gower, Hall, Akram …

A well-deserved honour for an under-rated performer.

And look at Gavaskar’s stats: he was the first cricketer to reach 10,000 runs and hit 30 Test centuries in Test annals, playing many match-saving innings.

The 21 year-old started his career with a bang in the Caribbean, scoring 774 runs at 154.80 in four Tests. He played some majestic innings in England, Australia, West Indies and Pakistan, as well as at home.

Dazzler he was not. Nor spectacular. But if I wanted someone to play for my life, I would choose Sunny Gavaskar over anyone else.

In reply to David Lord’s recurrent theme of “after Bradman daylight”, may I wisecrack, “after Don Sunny”?

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