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India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar was at his humourous best during the book release function of Sunny G, written by mid-day contributor Debasish Datta and presented by Shyam Bhatia, at the Cricket Club of India’s CK Nayudu Banquet Hall on Wednesday.
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When the author Datta announced that Gavaskar needs no introduction, the former India skipper expressed his disappointment in a lighter vein, and insisted that he always needs an introduction, and went on to justify the same with a series of anecdotes that had the audience in splits. “Many years ago, my uncle Madhav Mantri, who played four Tests for India, was invited to a school’s sports day presentation and the principal asked how he would like to be introduced. At that stage, I was captain of the Indian team, so my uncle told the principal to simply ask his students who their favourite cricketer is and when they reply, he can say I am his uncle.
However, at the assembly hall, when the principal asked his students who their favourite cricketer was, they replied in one voice ‘Kapil Dev’,” said Gavaskar, seamlessly going into other examples that explained why he needs an introduction.
“When I first came into the Indian team, the great Garfield Sobers dropped two really simple catches and I scored some runs. We beat the West Indies for the first time and there was a big celebration at the Brabourne Stadium [on the team’s return]. Ajit Wadekar was introduced as ‘the captain who outthought Sobers, Venkatraghavan, the vice-captain who bowled Sobers round his legs, Eknath Solkar, the gutsy cricketer’ and when it came to me, I was ‘the person who Garry Sobers dropped three-four times.’ The same thing happened a few months later, when we went to England. John Snow gave me a shove while I was looking for a single and I was sent sprawling and made it to the crease on my hands and knees. We beat England for the first time and again at a function back home, Wadekar was mentioned as ‘the brainiest captain’, Chandra was ‘the man who turned the game with his 6-38’ and finally, I was ‘the guy who John Snow shoved to the ground.’ Then, a few years after the 1971 twin wins, once I had invited one of the best batters of my generation Gundappa Vishwanath home for dinner. My sister fell in love with him and they got married. Then, when India started winning again and we started going to functions, here I was introduced as Gundappa Vishwanath’s brother-in-law. In fact, at the start of my career in school also, whenever I achieved something, it was said, ‘Madhav Mantri’s nephew, Madhav Mantri’s nephew.’ ”
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