THE cricketing world paid tribute to former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar on July 10 on his 60th birthday. It only seemed like a few years ago when he made his debut trashing West Indies greatest fast bowlers. The legendary opening batsman scored a record-breaking 771 runs in his debut Test series (just four matches) in 1971 against the West Indies. This led to popular calypso “West Indies couldn’t out Gavaskar at all, not at all”. He is popular all over the West Indies and is viewed as the world’s pride achieving what most dreamed.

I believe that he was the greatest opening batsman of all time scoring the most runs. In fact, he held the record for scoring the most runs in test cricket and the most centuries for a long period. Gavaskar scored his most runs against the West Indies and Australia both of which produced the fastest bowlers. He faced the best of fast bowlers — Roberts, Holding, Garner, Croft, Marshall, Thomson, Baptiste, Lillee, Hadlee, Walker, Snow, Willis and Imran Khan — fearlessly. He made runs against the best and at a times when Indian batsmen could not face up to fast bowling, fast bowlers remember him well for dispatching them to the boundary.

Gavaskar was one of a few batsmen during his time to have played international cricket without wearing a helmet and was never hit on the head or shoulder. Few could hook a fast bowler like him. And in fact, apart from a broken leg during WI tour of India in 1974, he was never injured by a bowler. I am not certain how his leg was fractured.

Few batsmen could bat like Gavaskar. Some say he imitated the style of our own great Rohan Kanhai. Gavaskar admired Kanhai and named his only son after him, Rohan.

Some of the finest players like David Gower, Clive Lloyd, Geoff Boycott, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev, Ajit Wadekar, etc. sang praises to the ‘Little Master, on his 60th.
VISHNU BISRAM