“Here comes the master…”, Sir Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes and Malcolm Marshall had greeted late-comer Sunil Gavaskar at a party, organised by Ravi Shastri at his residence a few years ago.
However, according to Shastri and Gavaskar’s one time team-mate, Milind Rege, India has three Little Masters. “All three (Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath and Sachin Tendulkar) are Little Masters”, they said exclusively.
“I have known him for close to 40 years as player, broadcaster and mentor and there was always something to learn from him in the dressing room and off the field,” said Shastri. “He is still at it as a broadcaster demonstrating terrific discipline and passion for the game. It’s taken 10 years for the Legends Club to honour him and he deserves it all.’
“Over the last forty years the three best openers I have seen are Gordon Greenidge (West Indies), Graham Gooch (England) and Matthew Hayden (Australia),” Shastri added.
“But Sunil Gavaskar stands apart.
“I have not seen a better opening batsman,” he concluded in his keynote address at the Cricket Club of India.
The other guest-speaker at the function in Mumbai to honour Gavaskar on his 64th birthday, Shishir Hathangadi begs to differ on who should be honoured with the Little Master tag, “Only the man who opened for India in Tests and has made thousands of runs is a Little Master”, he said in tribute to Gavaskar.
Incidentally, Vishy is Gavaskar’s brother-in-law. He is married to SMG’s sister, Kavita. Gavaskar, Vishwanath and Tendulkar are all short in stature, having 5′-5″ height.
The next Legend will have to wait. Gavaskar is the fourth member, the 10-year-old CCI Legend’s Club has no immediate plan to extend the list.
This was revealed by Rahul Mankad, the son of late Vinoo Mankad and one of the four legends of the club, “The final call will be made by Madhav Apte, the club president, who is now in England. But as of now we have not given any thought on these lines”, he said.
Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare are the other two official legends. Milind Rege, the guest speaker on Gavaskar’s birthday, says, “Legends can’t be so many in numbers. Australia has only three legends, the late Don Bradman, Shane Warne and Greg Chappell. West Indies recognise Sir Frank Worrell, Viv Richards and New Zealand know Sir Hadlee as legendary cricketers”.
by BIPIN DANI SPORTS
Bipin Dani
He has toured UAE, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Malaysia, to name a few, and contributes to a large number of newspapers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
His twitter bio reads: Eat cricket stories, drink cricket stories, sleep cricket stories.
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