Sunil Gavaskar - The world's first bionic man

[SJS]

Gavaskar would be probably not be picked for ODIs anyway, if he were playing today. So easy for him to say. After all, we don't hear Langer, Kumble or Laxman complain about excessive cricket either, do we?

Very well said.

 

[SJS]

I don't know how the Indians feel about Sunil but, to me at least, he comes off very arrogant. In the Bangladesh V Australia tests, whenever he and Wasim are next to each other...Wasim seems much more humble. Sunil seems dismissive and reluctantly agrees on certain issues, but gives you the hint that he thinks you're wrong and he's right.

Gavaskar seems to think he has occupied the place vacated by Sir Donald and is far above anyone else in world cricket.

He feels compelled to give lectures to anyone and everyone and has a huge chip on his shoulder that he is the only one who knows everything.

Everyone in world cricket gives him great respect which was well deserved by his cricketing feats but totally misplaced due to the himalayan chips on his shoulders.

 

[SJS]

PS : I suspect most cricketers in the world find him insufferable but dont say it due to the positions he holds. His influence in India is waning, nevertheless after he spent a lot of his goodwill backing Dalmiya and Ganguly and is still continuing to try and chip away at Chappell's chair - a post he thinks should have been his by divine right.

 

[honestbharani]

Meh i dunno about that. Near the end of his career, he did show marked adaptation to ODIs. He also has a few near run-a-ball tons/90s against a WI quartet comprising of the most successful opening combo ever- Holding and Marshall.
Just that his idea of ODIs is today's player's idea of 20/20 - just cant be arsed. But if Dravid is anything to go by, technically near-perfect batsmen like Dravid,Gavaskar, Sobers etc. would've probably adjusted quite well if it was necessary.

yeah, was just joking there. hence the smileys.

 

[Sanz]

PS : I suspect most cricketers in the world find him insufferable but dont say it due to the positions he holds. His influence in India is waning, nevertheless after he spent a lot of his goodwill backing Dalmiya and Ganguly and is still continuing to try and chip away at Chappell's chair - a post he thinks should have been his by divine right.

I dont like Gavaskar but man what you just posted about SuunyG wanting to become India Coach was just a load of bullcrap.Another one of your biased theories.

Gavaskar is too smart to accept India's coach position. If he wanted to, he could have had this position in 90s itself. But he simply didn't take it because he loves his reputation too much. He knew that he wouldn't be as successful as a coach as he was with bat and hence he repeatedly refused to take up the job.

 

[Matt79]

I thought I heard the Gavaskar's innings was a deliberate statement objecting to having to play ODIs - essentially saying "this is not proper cricket, so I'm going to use it as batting practice and I don't give a toss about the result". Wasn't it a deliberate attempt to be boring? (I don't know whether it makes it better or worse)

 

[Jono]

This knock is brought up so often, I wish I had a link to that article someone posted where Gavaskar discussed the knock.

Its been said that he did it out of protest, whilst he himself said he did it because he was so woefully out of form and just couldn't get the ball off the square. He was quoted as saying something like "I felt like moving out of the way of the stumps and getting bowled."

Either way its a shocking knock, but I tend to not believe he played like that because he was so badly out of form. That doesn't fly IMO.

 

[Sanz]

This knock is brought up so often, I wish I had a link to that article someone posted where Gavaskar discussed the knock.

Its been said that he did it out of protest, whilst he himself said he did it because he was so woefully out of form and just couldn't get the ball off the square. He was quoted as saying something like "I felt like moving out of the way of the stumps and getting bowled."

Either way its a shocking knock, but I tend to not believe he played like that because he was so badly out of form. That doesn't fly IMO.

You are right, For years I believed that SunnyG made this score in protest of ODIs, but that is not correct, here is what some of his teammates have to say :-

Karsan Ghavri :- "Sunil played a very long innings of 36 not out in the entire 60 Overs. Since England had scored something like 334 runs, Sunil thought it was difficult and impossible to chase this target. So he was trying to practice Bob Willis, Chris Old and all these guys for the Test Matches....Messages were being sent to him but he was just concentrating on his game and it never bothered him at all at that time. He just kept on playing all the 60 Overs. "

VenkatRaghvan :- "....The anti-climax was the batting performance of Sunil Gavaskar, who batted through the 60 overs to make 36 runs. I dare say that inspite of reminders he did injustice to the viewing public. The wicket was pretty good and I do not know what was going on in his mind. He never heeded to the reminders sent to him...."

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

That really is atrocious behaviour for a test player. If he was out of form fair enough, but like Jono said it just seems hard to believe, and you'd have to suspect that the "I was out of form" thing was a defence he came up with later. If he was trying to get a look at the English bowlers or to protest against ODIs, it's quite awful to put that ahead of the welfare of the team and not even TRY and get the target.

 

[C_C]

That really is atrocious behaviour for a test player. If he was out of form fair enough, but like Jono said it just seems hard to believe, and you'd have to suspect that the "I was out of form" thing was a defence he came up with later. If he was trying to get a look at the English bowlers or to protest against ODIs, it's quite awful to put that ahead of the welfare of the team and not even TRY and get the target.

I think its excusable given how ODIs were treated back then. Most couldnt be arsed anyways. Its like a batsman today pottering around in 20/20 and not bothering to chase down 300 in 20 overs....

 

[kvemuri]

Gavaskar was a very good fielder at closin in positions. So he must be fit. He was nearing his end of career when ODIs were played too seriously.

Gavaskar was a slip fielder, at least in my life I never saw him field at fwd short leg, backward short leg or silly point, occasionally maybe short cover and/or short mid wkt. Also he was an ok fielder not a very good fielder imo, he caught as many as he dropped, his weren't the safest hands always. I can easily compare him to Laxman on fielding in slips.

On this matter I think Sunny is starting to lose some marbles, given the fact that the international number of matches have grown what with the Championstrophy, super series and this new fad of stupidity called 2020 World Cup about to begin. I seriously think that cricketers are playing more "international" games, travelling (within the same country forget abroad) a lot more than they used to than at Sunny's time. A great example of this is Australia touring SA and then within a week going to the other spectrum of world and tour Bangladesh, also India playing the last ODI against Eng on Sat and then immediately flying over to Abu Dhabi on a short notice, not only is the travel grueling in some cases adjusting to the timezone changes isn't easy, however much you might wanna push your body at some point of time the work load will take its toll.

In Sunny's time two series were played with atleast a month apart, in fact more than that, which meant the players had more time to recuperate. If Sunny were to play in this era he would break down too, hence his overall comment imo is dumb and reeks of BS nationalism. I do agree that playing for your country is an honor but he can play 365 days for India, come on now please.

 

[kvemuri]

PS : I suspect most cricketers in the world find him insufferable but dont say it due to the positions he holds. His influence in India is waning, nevertheless after he spent a lot of his goodwill backing Dalmiya and Ganguly and is still continuing to try and chip away at Chappell's chair - a post he thinks should have been his by divine right.

Wait, I used to believe that he and Shastri were two of the former cricketers hounding Ganguly when Ganguly was going trhough a wretched form, also i thought both wanted Ganguly to step down from captaincy too...I am wrong?

 

[Sanz]

Gavaskar was a slip fielder, at least in my life I never saw him field at fwd short leg, backward short leg or silly point, occasionally maybe short cover and/or short mid wkt. Also he was an ok fielder not a very good fielder imo, he caught as many as he dropped, his weren't the safest hands always. I can easily compare him to Laxman on fielding in slips.

On this matter I think Sunny is starting to lose some marbles, given the fact that the international number of matches have grown what with the Championstrophy, super series and this new fad of stupidity called 2020 World Cup about to begin. I seriously think that cricketers are playing more "international" games, travelling (within the same country forget abroad) a lot more than they used to than at Sunny's time. A great example of this is Australia touring SA and then within a week going to the other spectrum of world and tour Bangladesh, also India playing the last ODI against Eng on Sat and then immediately flying over to Abu Dhabi on a short notice, not only is the travel grueling in some cases adjusting to the timezone changes isn't easy, however much you might wanna push your body at some point of time the work load will take its toll.

In Sunny's time two series were played with atleast a month apart, in fact more than that, which meant the players had more time to recuperate. If Sunny were to play in this era he would break down too, hence his overall comment imo is dumb and reeks of BS nationalism. I do agree that playing for your country is an honor but he can play 365 days for India, come on now please.

S-P-O-T ON.

 

[kvemuri]

S-P-O-T ON.

Thank you Siva

 

[Anil]

Gavaskar was a slip fielder, at least in my life I never saw him field at fwd short leg, backward short leg or silly point, occasionally maybe short cover and/or short mid wkt. Also he was an ok fielder not a very good fielder imo, he caught as many as he dropped, his weren't the safest hands always. I can easily compare him to Laxman on fielding in slips.

he was more of a slip fielder, but towards the end of his career in one dayers, he did field at point and short cover....and while he was certainly not a spectacular or a particularly athletic fielder, he had a pretty safe pair of hands and "he caught as many as he dropped" is not an accurate statement....

 

[quick4mindia]

Gavaskar was a slip fielder, at least in my life I never saw him field at fwd short leg, backward short leg or silly point, occasionally maybe short cover and/or short mid wkt. Also he was an ok fielder not a very good fielder imo, he caught as many as he dropped, his weren't the safest hands always. I can easily compare him to Laxman on fielding in slips.

On this matter I think Sunny is starting to lose some marbles, given the fact that the international number of matches have grown what with the Championstrophy, super series and this new fad of stupidity called 2020 World Cup about to begin. I seriously think that cricketers are playing more "international" games, travelling (within the same country forget abroad) a lot more than they used to than at Sunny's time. A great example of this is Australia touring SA and then within a week going to the other spectrum of world and tour Bangladesh, also India playing the last ODI against Eng on Sat and then immediately flying over to Abu Dhabi on a short notice, not only is the travel grueling in some cases adjusting to the timezone changes isn't easy, however much you might wanna push your body at some point of time the work load will take its toll.

In Sunny's time two series were played with atleast a month apart, in fact more than that, which meant the players had more time to recuperate. If Sunny were to play in this era he would break down too, hence his overall comment imo is dumb and reeks of BS nationalism. I do agree that playing for your country is an honor but he can play 365 days for India, come on now please.

Okay i take back my statement that he was a good fielder. (India were never a good fieldin side)
As the number of matches go up instances of player burnout will go up. But the same would bring up more money and fame to the cricketers short playing life. The same is happening in football and tennis. Countries like Australia India can afford to pay their players the kind of moolah they are raking in. Others will then become 2nd grade at list in terms of earnings.
Just make a comparison with the english football or the spanish football. And in the world cup you find teams like romania bulgaria etc..etc.. giving them tough copetition. Frankly i come to know about these teams only in the world cups where these lesser known teams simply beat the s**t out of these much hyped pampered players.

May be in cricket we can see strike rate of the batsman/bowler gaining more importance than the average or any other stats.

 

[quick4mindia]

S-P-O-T ON.

Not quite though
I have seen him filding at almost all the closin positions except silly point and short leg. He was a pretty decent fielder who caught definitely more than he dropped. and he was a fielder who was always charged up in the field. (Though not quite a livewire) He was definitely better than most of his compatriots in the team until the time india had a "sensational" (can be debated) fielder in azaharuddin. He had a pair of safe hands.

 

[SJS]

This knock is brought up so often, I wish I had a link to that article someone posted where Gavaskar discussed the knock.

Its been said that he did it out of protest, whilst he himself said he did it because he was so woefully out of form and just couldn't get the ball off the square. He was quoted as saying something like "I felt like moving out of the way of the stumps and getting bowled."

Either way its a shocking knock, but I tend to not believe he played like that because he was so badly out of form. That doesn't fly IMO.

He has always maintained that he just couldnt get the ball off the square and that he tried to throw his wicket but didnt succeed. Thats codswallop of course. He couldnt even run himself out in sixty over !!! hahahahaha

I am sure it was a form of protest but not against limited overs game but against Venkat being made captain of the team.

 

[SJS]

Wait, I used to believe that he and Shastri were two of the former cricketers hounding Ganguly when Ganguly was going trhough a wretched form, also i thought both wanted Ganguly to step down from captaincy too...I am wrong?

Gavaskar is today the biggest supporter , openly so, of Ganguly in the Indian cricketing circles and an opponent of the new cricketing administration in the country.

A lot of people suspect but wont say that it has to do with his association with Star Sport/ESPN which is the biggest loser from the change in administration. Dalmiya had given them 100% rights to matches (out of turn since Zee had bid higher) and this team came back and took away the rights from Star.

This isnt about Ganguly

 

[viktor]

Why is it that people attribute all kinds of motives to Gavaskar?? I am not saying he is completely blemishless but these days every time he makes a comment all kinds of conspiracy theories are put forward. I believe, he has his opinions and sticks to them. He might have lost his marbles but he is not the scheming person he is made out to be.
For example, he is still supporting Ganguly inspite of it becoming more and more apparent that Gangs has no future in the side. If he was the Machiavelli he is made out to be, it would have been very easy for him to jump ship and join the anti-Gangs bandwagon.
The ESPN/Starsports thing doesn't wash. He is not the owner of the company and as a commentator, he is still getting employment and money doing commentary elsewhere
(BD vs Aus ??).
.PS: This is not a rant or a troll. It is a genuine question.