Sunil Gavaskar stresses on young cricketers enjoying the game

Mumbai cricket veterans Daya Dudhwadkar (left) and Gopal Koli present Sunil Gavaskar (centre) a sketch drawn by Austin Coutinho on Saturday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

India's batting icon Sunil Gavaskar had some sound advice for young cricketers when he visited the Dadkar Maidan, Matunga on Saturday to be chief guest for the 28th Kalpesh Koli Memorial under-16 tournament on Saturday. "It's a sport and enjoy it. The more you enjoy the sport, it will help you to improve your game. Do not take it (cricket) casually but enjoy playing it," said Gavaskar.

Virar-Palghar triumph
Virar-Palghar Centre beat Worli Centre by virtue of a first innings lead in the final to win Mumbai's U-16 selection trials tournament. Aditya Anand, Yash Kripal and Ayush Zimare emerged the best batsman, bowler and the player of the tournament respectively. Prior to the function, Gavaskar inaugurated the Hemant Waingankar Study Room at Dadar Parsee Zoroastrian CC at the same ground where he advised the kids to maintain a diary of how they played because that will help them when they endure a bad patch. Waingankar was Gavaskar's teammate during their Bombay University days and a very close friend, who passed away in 2013.

SMG emphasises on club cricket
Indian cricket's little master also elaborated on the importance of club cricket. It was apt that he did so a few plots away from Dadar Union SC, an institution he took pride in representing. "Club cricket is the life and soul of cricket and everybody comes up from club cricket. Today, when a cricketer becomes big, it is only because of club cricket. If club cricket is not there, the he (the player) won't become big, we all started (in the same way)," Gavaskar remarked.

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