Celebrating the luminary behind India's 'Sunny Days'

It is difficult to be consistently relevant in an everevolving world Unless of course one happens to be Sunil Gavaskar who is celebrating the completion of 75 eventful summers in his life on WednesdayIts tough for todays young cricket fans who have grown up watching IPL big hits to truly understand the significance of Gavaskar as often they have a shrunken image of him a formercricketerturnedcommentator in their mindNow there are too many of them Or perhaps its the recency biasHowever Gavaskar who tackled some of the meanest pace bowlers to have walked on earth remains a colossus in the minds of his contemporaries who fondly recall the greatness of the righthand greatGavaskar made his debut two years after my retirement But we have already been told by late Ajit Wadekar about a talented Bombay boy who could make a lot of runs for India Didnt he make a lot of runs said former India batter Chandu BordeSo how did Gavaskar tame those fearsome quicks from the West Indies right from his first series in 1971Its his concentration and a watertight technique I have not seen a better stance than that of him and he watched the ball so closely Of course he could play most of the shots but used them wisely He was a very practical batsman knew what to do when said BordeGavaskar scored 774 runs in that series helping India conquer the West Indies 10 Lord Relator immortalised that triumph with a Calypso dedicated to the master batsmanIt was Gavaskar De real master Just like a wall We couldnt out Gavaskar at all not at all he wrote and to this day it remains a goosebumpinducing numberSunil Gavaskar birthday The man who changed Indian cricket for the betterGavaskar is often remembered for his mastery over pacers such as Andy Roberts Michael Holding Malcolm Marshall and Imran Khan but another less talked about aspect of his batting was the way he nullified spinnersGavaskar who once rated Englands Derek Underwood as the toughest spinner he faced outfoxed some of the wily tweakers of his generation like Abdul Qadir Tauseef Ahmed from Pakistan and Englands John EmbureySunny had brilliant footwork and could use soft hands against spin Since he used to watch the ball very closely he could play spinners late and he never really got into awkward positions against them recalled former India middleorder batter Mohinder Amarnath himself a slayer of pacers in the 80sBut occasionally he wore the enforcers garb tooHe creamed Marshall for a six to equal the then world record of 29 Test hundreds held by the legendary Sir Donald BradmanAlso ReadSunnyrsquos memorable openingsIn fact Gavaskars 103 his lone ODI century against New Zealand during the 1987 World Cup came off 88 ballsPerhaps the need of that time forced Gavaskar to go defensive while playing for India But he could always dominate attacks and he often did that in the domestic circuit He could pull and hook with as much ease as anyone else says former Mumbai batter Milind ReggeGavaskar carried that versatility and adaptability to the commentary box as well and added a touch of subtle humour to itRewind to the way he teased former England pacer Jade Dernbach who carried the reputation of an excellent death over bowler after he was carted around by Indian batters in a T20IDernbach is a death overs specialist isnt it he mischievously asked former England batterturnedcommentator Michael Vaughan with a soft chuckleSunny bhai is always a chirpy presence in the box There is no dull moment around him He is a bundle of anecdotes and never really afraid to speak his mind tells a former cricketer who has spent several hours of airtime with GavaskarHe has strong opinions about cricketing matters and supports Indian cricket quite vociferously Perhaps it comes from the time he played cricketYou know the time when world cricket was dominated by England and Australia Now he wants to see the wheel come to a full circle he averredIt indeed has come full circle for Gavaskar as wellWith agency inputs