Hello, long time no ‘C’

In India more than any other cricketing country a Test century is a glowing individual achievement as a career progressesIn Mumbai the importance of shambar century in Marathi used to be drilled into players by coaches and mentors from an early ageSunil Gavaskar the highest centurymaker in Test cricket from 1983 to 2005 relates a fascinating story about VS Patil his senior at Dadar Union Sporting Club in his autobiography Sunny DaysPatil according to Gavaskar would drop in often at the future Test starrsquos Hindu Colony home in Dadar at night and remind him ldquoSunny century tomorrowrdquoThe importance of a century is not lost on cricket fans as well If they had their way theyrsquod want batsmen scoring hundreds in every Test they figure inThe media come to the fore when a batsman hasnrsquot scored a hundred for a while and that registers in the minds of cricket followers even the playersVirat Kohli who in Ahmedabad recently ended his threeyear wait for a Test century which came after a gap of 23 Tests told head coach Rahul Dravid in an interview for the BCCI website ldquoThe desperation to get to the threefigure mark is something that can grow on you as a batsmanrdquoAlso Read Four decades of MoteraBefore him teammate Cheteshwar Pujararsquos unbeaten 102 against Bangladesh at Chittagong last December was his first ton in 29 TestsI indulged in some random triviahunting the day after Kohli arrested his century droughtI started with Australian Mark Taylor who famously ended a wretched run with the bat with a century in the opening Test of the 1997 Ashes at Edgbaston in June That century was his first since November 1995 a gap of 13 TestsNot getting a hundred in a stretch of time doesnrsquot always mean that the player in question is enduring an absolute bad patch There could be a vital 70odd along the way and many a time the rub of the green comes into play when a hundred is there for the takingTaylor didnrsquot believe the media talk ldquoPeople were now writing that I had had a bad trot for 18 months which was crap In fact the doldrums which became the obsession of the cricketing media lasted from around Christmas 1996 through to the century I scored at Edgbaston in mid1997 Six monthsrdquo he wrote in Time to DeclareSave the fag end of his career when every cricket lover waited for his 100th international century Sachin Tendulkar never really endured a shortageofcenturies phase But the build up to his 35th Test century which would take him past Gavaskarrsquos record of 34 tons got to him ldquoThere was this pressure which was building The room service and housekeeping people in my hotel only spoke about getting Century No 35 I was glad and relieved when it happened because I could then start enjoying the game againrdquo he told me in an interview to commemorate his 20 years in international cricketTendulkarrsquos Test Nos 178 to 200 didnrsquot witness a hundred but who at the Wankhede Stadium would say he didnrsquot deserve one in his farewell Test in which he scored 74 He came close to a hundred at The Oval in 2011 but he had to walk off for 91 when umpire Rod Tucker adjudged him leg before to Tim BresnanSourav Ganguly endured century lsquobreaksrsquo too It took him 23 Tests to log in another threefigure score from the time he scored his 125 against New Zealand in the 1999 Test at Ahmedabad Hence his 136 against the Zimbabweans at New Delhi in early 2002 came as a relief for the then India captain It must be said that Ganguly stayed unbeaten on 98 while steering India to a memorable Galle Test win over Sri Lanka in August 2001 during that periodThe Bengal man also had an 11Test gap between his second Test century at Nottingham in 1996 and his third in Colombo the following year Runs came in a flood in the return series against the Lankanshellip 109 99 173 and 11VVS Laxman once had a 15Test stretch October 2010 to November 2011 without a hundred And Rahul Dravidrsquos next hundred after that epic 180 against Australia at Eden in 2001 came after a gap of 13 TestsBack to Gavaskar His 34 Test tons indicate in good measure his ability to get centuries consistently As a big Gavaskar fan in 1981 I waited for him to get his next Test ton after the one against Pakistan at Chennai in 1980 The 1980 Jubilee Test against England and the 198081 tours to Australia and New Zealand were sans Gavaskar hundreds He would have reached one in the 1981 Melbourne Test had umpire Rex Whitehead not ruled him out leg before wicket for 70Gavaskar broke his centuryless sequence in the second Test against Keith Fletcherrsquos 198182 Englishmen at Bangalore It happened on a December Sunday As a Class 7 student I was summoned for Hindi and Marathi tuitions that day But I didnrsquot end up reaching there I stood outside a television shop at Dadar watched Gavaskar reach his 24th Test century and returned home while my teacher wondered about my rare absence I said I was sickMrs Maggie Fernandes my tuition teacher passed away earlier this year I am grateful to her for helping me get a break from my second and third language failures And of course for letting me play hooky that day in 1981 Irsquod like to think that she wouldnrsquot have minded if she had known I skipped class to indulge my enduring passion for cricketmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper