The Little Master -Tribute on 60th Birthday. Review on Sunil Gavaskar

*Today the little maestro Sunil Gavaskar turns 60.This is my tribute to the giant.

No opening batsman in the history of the game has been as hard to dismiss as Sunil Gavaskar.His powers of Concentration are those of a Buddhist monk in a state of meditation. To me I cannot belive that in Cricket history there has been a batsman with greater concentration. When batting one almost felt that here was a man sitting in meditation rather than playing Cricket His determination is that of a soldier fighting in a war against the most powerful enemy but still relentlessly battling on.

To the greatest bowlers he has often been a boulder unable to remove Gavaskar has rock-like tenacity. He may not have the talent or raw ability of a Viv Richards or a Sachin Tendulkar or the grace or style of Vishwanath, but to bat for your life he was the ultimate man. Technically he is one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. Sunil has an impregnable water-tight defence playing equally well on the Front and backfoot.He is a master of the Straight drive and also has a technically perfect cover drive .One of his most remarkable shots is his half drive –half flick hit through the midwicket region.

For most of his career Gavaskar eliminated the hook shot from his repertoire. Ghopla Bose describes his technique as “Starting from Stance, with the body evenly balanced, with the weight evenly distributed and on he heel in particular, this being evident a the toes kept clear off the ground. He is fairly upright that is as much as his height allows him to, but the moment preceding the delivery of the ball , he goes into a noticeable crouch, bending from knees and waist and bat raised o stump level, which makes him such a glorious driver of the ball, hitting right through it.’*

Amongst All-time Greats where would Gavaskar rank? Could he be called the greatest Opener of all time? I personally feel he is perhaps the greatest post-war defensive batsman.Len Hutton consider Sunil the bset batsman of his era.He thikns Gavaskar was agraeter role model in his era than even Viv Richards or Greg Chapell.Infact Hutton compared Sunil More favourably with Bradman than Viv Richards. Technically, I rate Gavaskar amongst the top half dozen of all time, only behind Len Hutton, Barry Richards, Don Bradma and Jack Hobbs. As an opener I only consider Hobbs or possibly Barry Richards ahead .Hobbs encountered Wet pitches and also had a mammoth first-class record. Barry Richards was far more explosive and could change the complexion of a game to a greater extent.Taking first –callss Cricket into account I place them just a whisker ahead of Sunil.If tset Cricket is the sole criteria then It would be Gavaskar or Hobes in a photo-finish.(Hobes scored more match-winning tset huindreds , that oo o treacherous pitches) Len Hutton and Barry Richards were superior technically but never faced the calibre of bowling Gavaskar faced nor equaled his powers of Concentration and tenacity.(Barry played only 4 tests while Hutton didn’t face as great bowling)With the Chappell brothers, Barry and Viv Richards Gavaskar was the greatest batsman of his era ..None of those batsman encountered ferocity of fast bowling to the extent Gavaskar did as Gavaskar faced the new ball as an opener. In his era he faced the greatest pace attack of all time, scoring 13 Centuries against the Windies.Viv Richards, the greatest destroyer of bowling played for the greatest side , while in a relatively weak team Gavaskar had to virtually carry the brunt of scoring runs. No batsman in the post-war era broke so many records of test Cricket. Gavaskar scored runs all over the world in all Conditions-from the seaming English Wickets, to the fast Australian and West Indies Wickets to the turning pitches in India and Pakistan The records he set in his era were simply like writing new chapters in test Cricket’s history..His main flaw to critiques was his slow scoring unlike a Tendulkar or Viv Richards who simply turned the complexion of games. One weakness of Sunil is that he scored his runs at a relatively slow rate and was not a consistent match-winner.He also often got into trouble on bouncy wickets or on surfaces of uneven bouncve because of his height. In today’s day and age that may have gone against him but remember that today the pitches are far more conducive to batting, the bowling attacks are easier to combat and batsman have protective headgear. They also have an advantage of having to face a maximum of 2 bouncers an over. It must however be remembered that he bore the brunt of a relatively weaker team and held the team’s batting like a pivot .True Vishwanath was a graeter stroke player and match-winner but was it not Sunil who was the architect of many an improbable draw or even victory at times.Vishy had graer natural talent but hardly had Gavaskar’s concentration, temperament and consistency .Had he played for powerful teams like West Indies and Australia he would have won twice as many or many more games. However Sunil was often like the foundation of a building .It is true that sometimes he played excessively slowly, but some of his long Innings have saved, almost won, or won the day for India. In his220 at Trinidad, 221 at the Oval and 96 at Bangalore he played to the perfect tune and almost won the game. It was his batting that enabled us achieve historic first series win in West Indies.- I 1970-71..His 166 at Madras against Pakistan in 1980 and 102 against West Indies in the 3rd test at Trinidad was the foundation of a famous victories, and in Australia his hundreds in 1977-78 in the first 3 tests almost won all of them.. It could be stated that Gavaskar did not make centuries at Kingston against the 4 pronged West Indian attack like Graham Gooch, nor scored centuries against Lillee and Thomson at heir fastest at Perth.(Georgetown and Trinidad we is happy hunting grounds I the Carribean) and he never faced Lillee an Thomson together like Roy Fredericks. Even Vishy outscored him on the bouncy Madras track I 1974-75 and in 1979-80.However if you study Gavakar’s overall record against he bowling he has faced , to me that is only coincindental. .It was sad that Gavaskar did not play Packer Cricket. In 1977-1979. It would have been a sight seeing the little master take on bowlers of he calibrer of Dennis Lille, Andy Robets and Imran Khan.To some extent Sunil benefited by missing Packer Cricket as he faced lesser Est Indiaand Australian attacks in that era and plundered runs. 9very significant when Gavaskar is conmpared with Viv Richards and Greg Chapel as they both scored aevily in Packer Cricvket against great bolwing)The great English fast bowler , Fred Trueman rated Gavakar superior to Geof Boycott, ‘Unlike Geoff, Sunil has the ability to move into a higher gear when he situation demands.”Frank Keating superbly describes Gavaskar’s footwork “almost an artform, never faulted.”Imran Khan describes Sunil as “The most compact batsman to whom I have ever bowled .”

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