Had Sunil Gavaskar and Geoff Boycott opened the batting together for a substantial period of time, it would’ve driven the connoisseurs into raptures. Both technically correct and compact, both blessed with great powers of concentration and the fortitude required to tackle the fastest bowlers at their freshest with a shiny new cherry, neither man took a backward step on the cricket field.

Between them, they boast more than 18,000 Test runs; they might have been fierce rivals—Gavaskar promised to break, and then successfully broke, Boycott’s record for the most Test runs in 1983—but their off-field chemistry is undeniable. Their camaraderie was on view on a nostalgic Saturday afternoon at a city hotel as they came together for the fourth episode of Midwicket Stories, the former England opener flying down from Cape Town specifically for the event that was also attended by Gundappa Vishwanath, Syed Kirmani and UV Narayana Murthy of Infosys, among others.