One of India’s greatest sportsperson and former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar is celebrating his 68th birthday today. Gavaskar made his debut against West Indies in March 1971 at Port of Spain. He played bowlers like Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall with effortless grace. During his time, Gavaskar was the greatest ever Test batsman to walk on the pitch. And later became an inspiration for many, such as Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. But all this might not have happened. Indian cricket might not have changed forever. India would not have gone through the spectacular transition it eventually did. Because Gavaskar was almost switched at birth with a fisherwoman’s baby.
On the legend’s special day, here is a look at some of the unknown facts of his life:
It was Gavaskar
De real master
Just like a wall
We couldn’t out Gavaskar at all, not at all
You know the West Indies couldn’t out Gavaskar at all
“As I took strike after Ashok (Mankad) had got three runs, I was a little afraid that I might not be up to the mark. (Vanburn) Holder thundered down and bowled on the leg stump. The ball struck my leg guards and went down to fine leg for two leg byes. But I was surprised to see that the umpire did not make any signal so I was off the mark with two runs when actually I should not have had any. This helped me to get rid of the fear of failure and I was soon middling the ball and clipped Holder to the square leg fence for my first boundary in Tests.”
