{"id":3762,"date":"2022-07-27T13:56:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T08:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/?p=3762"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T08:11:48","slug":"when-sunny-days-will-never-return-to-re-invigorate-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/when-sunny-days-will-never-return-to-re-invigorate-the-nation.html","title":{"rendered":"When Sunny Days will never return to re-invigorate the nation."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0when India failed to venerate the most distinguished cricketer of his age and era, U.K has historically institutionalised him as Asia’s greatest cricketer ever.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nVivekanand Jha Ranchi:<\/strong> Sunil Gavaskar is the name whom the age and era passed by considered him eponymous with Cricket. India in the cricketing field symbolised Sunil Gavaskar, and Sunil Gavaskar inextricably reflected India. In fact, the nation, albeit for the first time, appeared to have shrunk to its individualistic expression through the batsmanship of a man who towered in the cricketing field as a Colossus, at least in the cricketing ground when, his departure from the wicket, was the indication of India pulverising as ninepin in the face of the onslaught of an opposition attack, and whose perseverance in the wicket, despite the characteristics of the game being that of glorious uncertainty, stood as a guarantee of subsisting hope and profundity of optimism. Unequivocally, the name Sunil Gavaskar had no substitute in the past decades, notwithstanding the deluge of later cricketers earning greater name and fame. Little wonder then, my serendipitous encounter with a Pakistani empire, Khizir Hayat, while the test match was going on, I had asked him, ‘ Please tell me, since you are observing the cricketers from the closest circle, who do you consider as the greatest batsman of the world?’ With such a galaxy of world class batsmen around, to top them all, great Vivian Richard, anyone would have guessed that empire would inevitably name him. Lo and behold! My ears refused to believe what they just heard: ‘ Sunil Gavaskar’. Significantly, taken in by surprise, for I never anticipated a Pakistani Muslim cricketer and an umpire to utter the name of Indian batsman, especially when the world showcased such outstanding batsmen of that era like Vivian Richards, Greg Chappel, Zahir Abbas, Javed Miandad and others. Hesitating for a while, as if his reply failed to register on my mind space, I earnestly urged him to duplicate his response yet again. His reply, more resounding this time, obliterated even the infinitesimal doubt that persisted when he had responded to my question, ‘ Sunil Gavaskar, for he is the one, if he so resolves to remain in crease, will never get out. None, to my perception, has this exceptional prowess in this age and era’. I stood speechless for a while, rearranging my thought process I discussed few more cricketing stuffs with him. Decades later, what Khizir Hayat had told me, was, surprisingly, duplicated verbatim by the immortal Sir Donald Bradman when, pouring accolades on the little master, Donald said, ‘ His batting skills are feast for our eyes; in fact, the hands that hold that bat juggles with the ball thrown by the pacers or the spinners, alike! Apt it is here to mention that Donald Bradman, rated as the greatest cricketer was never generous with his praise for anyone. He had showered his praise only on Gavaskar rating him as the greatest cricketer of that age and era. Later, of course he praised Sachin Tendulkar too, dubbing him outright as his own resurrection. However, the praise Donald had showered on Gavaskar, was unique; in fact, very very special, which he had never ever showered on anyone.<\/p>\n

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Writing in– perhaps the best cricketing book ever written–Sunny Days, the maestro talks about the discipline that was instilled in him, since his childhood days. Interestingly, referring to a controversy erupting during his birth, the great man says that his birth had coincided with the birth of a fisherman’s baby and, had it not been for his maternal uncle, Madhav Mantri, he possibly would have been languishing in some distant part of India, fishing in some pond. Importantly, he alludes to his profound love for the net practice, and would seldom ignore it. During the test matches, the maestro would go to bed around 9.p.m.and wake up early morning. As and when he would get out, he would discuss with his colleagues about his technical deficiency for the lapse. Unequivocally, the strict disciplinarian as he was, the pinnacle of success he attained, certainly could not have been achievable, had the strict regimen he had religiously followed, during his cricketing years, would have shown some sort of laxity or lackadaisical mentality. Admittedly, he knew how on his vast shoulders, the overall prestige and honour of the nation stayed; he, while other could take liberties, could seldom afford one, for, his departure from the wicket, triggered the collapse of the entire Indian team in no time. Significantly, Gundappa Vishwanath and Dilip Vengsarkar were the other stalwarts who, despite their distinctive skills, only remained in the towering shadow of the Colossus that Sunny Gavaskar was.<\/p>\n

1983 World Cup brought India the hitherto elusive glory: India won the World Cup. Unequivocally, the credit for the same should go to Kapil Dev. Sunil Gavaskar was at his nadir in that whole tournament. We celebrated the unprecedented triumph by pasting the photographs of Kapil Dev, Mahinder Amarnath and others. Regrettably, the photograph of Sunil Gavaskar was conspicuous by its absence. My disappointment level accentuated by leaps and bounds, for the absence of Sunil Gavaskar was overwhelmingly eloquent, for, despite failing with his bat, Sunny Gavaskar was instrumental behind the victory of India in final against West Indies: His highly productive advice to Kapil Dev to depute Ravi Shastri to bowl to Joel Garner, which resulted in Garner’s wicket, resulting in India’s victory in the final match of the World Cup. Later when West Indies visited India, in Chepak Stadium, Gavaskar’s 236 not out is the best batsmanship I have seen. The magnetism of his bat, negotiating with the blistering pace of Holding, Marshall and Garner shall continue to be the important part of the cricketing folklore.<\/p>\n

Wisden Indian Cricketer Award of the Century conferred upon Kapil Dev, based on the poll and journalists’ opinions was undoubtedly a flawed evaluation. Whereas Kapil Dev was doubtless a legendary cricketer whose contribution towards India winning World Cup in 1983 was unparalleled. Yet, to ignore the colossus; the pivot around whom Indian Cricket continued to revolve, was a mighty injustice. So was with the highest Civilian Award conferred upon Sachin Tendulkar, ignoring Sunil Gavaskar, was even a greater injustice and blunder, for Sachin, despite all his mighty achievements was never equated with India, the way Sunny Gavaskar was, because Sachin had illustrious colleagues like Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Mahendra Singh Dhini, whereas Gavaskar, for almost a decade, had borne the brunt of being the lonely flag bearer of India’s cricketing honour. Small wonder then, to ignore Gavaskar’s credentials for Bharat Ratna while preferring Sachin Tendulkar for the same, was nothing short of a historic injustice done to the legendary cricketer and the world’s greatest opening batsman of all time. However, there is always a silver lining amidst the dark cloud: whereas India, erroneously though, might have ignored Sunil Gavaskar for Bharat Ratna, but U.K, the progenitor of Cricket game, cannot do injustice to the legendary Cricketer whose contribution to cricket is only after Sir Donald Bradman: The naming of a Cricketing ground in Leicester in UK after Sunil Gavaskar is the honour that the latter alone deserves. No wonder, it is hitherto the only honour given to an Asian Cricketer speaks a volume about the maestro’s unparalleled contribution to the game of Cricket. Ironically, what his own country of birth failed to do, the country he has adopted for living, bestows upon him the genuine honour which he alone deserves in the Cricketing arena of Asia.<\/p>\n

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Vivekanand Jha, author of Delhi Beckons: RaGa for NaMo, 56 Inches and The Making of Narendra Modi, Unmaking of Jawaharlal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0when India failed to venerate the most distinguished cricketer of his age and era, U.K has historically institutionalised him as Asia’s greatest cricketer ever. Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: Sunil Gavaskar is the name whom the age and era passed by considered him eponymous with Cricket. India in the cricketing field symbolised Sunil Gavaskar, and Sunil Gavaskar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-sports","category-top-stories-of-madhesh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG-20220727-WA0108.jpg?fit=1023%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS11m-YG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}