Sunny GAVASKAR - Myth or ICON?

 Sunil Gavaskar : Myth or India’s first Godhead in Cricket?

 

Written on the occasion of Sunil Gavaskar’s 75^th birth anniversary which falls on 10^th July 2024.

 

 

We look back at why this man garners so much Interest and why has he been an ICON WITH some deeds that he didn’t perform .

Sunny reigns the cricketing consciousness in INDIA with many monumental deeds and some he quite did not perform . These days statistics is available at the click of a button yet misconceptions persist about his feats.

Disclaimer : (THIS IS NOT A POST THAT SAYS SUNNY BHAI WAS NOT A GREAT BATSMAN . Like many I think he was a trendsetter - no one can deny that. He was one of the great opening batter of all times - no one argues about it . YET there were chinks in his armor . This post will try to unravel some myths built around this man but for not a single minute will undermine his greatness . This exercise is required because lot of his genuine greatness is often pushed to the background and obsession with his mythical feats take the front seat) .

I grew up in an era in which SUNNY WAS worshipped . Make no mistake he was . In the 70’s where I grew up his popularity soared anywhere between a top form RAJESH KHANNA & AMITABH BACCHAN. He was the GOD OF BATTING . Mind you these were the days when ultra technologies didn’t dissect your chinks in the armor and you were GOD. Infallible . No weakness . Nothing . He was the arbitrary king that existed platonically . Nothing to take away from him .

He was COPYBOOK personified . Forward back-foot , straight block , straight bat , drive , elbow pointed towards point , face of bat coming down vertically . Everything that existed copybook .

 

 

We worshipped Gavaskar and rightfully so - YOURS TRULY BEING ONE OF THEM. I have no shame in saying this because my love for the game grew with 2 men - one being SUNNY the other being SIR VIV . There were other cricketers also but these two were head and shoulders above others : and rightfully so .And we had SUNNY . Technique , temperament and greatness that you wouldn’t see much . A rare novelty .

The first thing that catapulted SUNNY GAVASKAR to greatness was 700+ runs in a debut series that too away from home against the mighty Caribbean’s . That record still remains and may remain for ever - may not . But the starting point of his reference to GREATNESS was this . He did score 700+ again in his career - against the same opponent this time in India .

We always say GAVASKAR scored 2700 odd runs against the West Indies at a mighty 65 average . Have we checked how many of them was against - Holding , Garner , Marshall , Roberts , Croft and Clarke ? Take nothing away from Sunny . He is a great a towering one at that . But do we know who were the bowlers that bowled against him in that series that made him a global icon ? None of the fearsome 4 were there . Dowe , Shillingford and Noriega . Have you ever heard of them before ? They are famous in history because SUNNY plummeted 774 off them . Nothing to take away from Sunny because before him no one could master the mighty Caribbeans in their home soil .

 

 

 

But the truth remains none of Dowe, Shillingford and Noriega were Holding , Marshall and Garner / Roberts . So much so for truth . I have given my disclaimer already at the top .

 If you care to run / flip through Stats and statistics mind you are very dry truth that uproots u from romantic world of illusions and myth . Statistics don’t refer to greatness in a game like cricket else Barry Richards and Peter Pollock would have never found the same place with Jack Hobbs and Gary Sobers . But statistics do tell us some story .

And statistics never lie - they serve cold brutal truth . And this will shock you - From 1980 till his retirement Sunny Gavaskar scored runs at 44.9 in tests much lower than his overall average . Dilip Vengsarkar , Mohinder Amarnath and Azharuddin all averaged more than him in this phase . Shocking isn’t it my dear friends ?

Gavaskar across his career. Runs. Average
First 62 tests ( 1971 -1980) 5901. 56.74
Last. 63 tests ( 1980 - 1987) 4221 44.90

Shocking, isn’t it ???

That’s the beauty of this man. Even after knowing that he faced 3 very ordinary bowlers enroute his iconic 774 the mind refuses to bulge . Even now after all the score cards and statistics are available , the myth is as strong as ever . The myth has been very consciously and unconsciously fused into Indian cricket consciousness .

When u challenge the 774 which is not my intention but to point out that Sunny whom I am grateful to for starting to follow cricket in the late 70’s - was a human being and not GOD the status he enjoys in India , I was quickly pointed out that one cannot measure greatness in numbers . After all no one wrote a calypso on anyone . They did on Sunny.

Once again it demonstrates the divinity with which Sunny has been measured all through.

The fact is all of us who started following the game in 70’s ( for me late 70’s and early 80’s ) didn’t see him bat except when he played in India or at Calcutta . TV not being there , no one had the technology . We didn’t have an idea what was happening on the other side of world .

It was heavily pre conceived that SUNNY was the greatest . This was more so because when India played abroad , mostly we had to do with late night commentary which was patriotic and highly exaggerated . The journalists used to send 1/2 or 1/3 baked reports .

 

Now comes the real shocker . IF WE ANALYSE HIS CAREER VERY MINUTELY, we will see that his best phase of run scoring coincided with the PACKER years . When he played Australia and WI without their lethal bowlers . Yet our eulogy and myth is based on the very fact that Sunny was GOD because he hammered Aussie and Caribbean speedsters ! How fallacious !!!

The problem of creating this imaginary myth around
Sunny was that , in doing so the genuine aspects of his greatness are clearly ignored . Few remember his series against Pakistan in 1977-78 which is actually his best series statistics and quality wise .
 

Now I will present you with the actual data :

1. When Lloyd came with his famous 4-pronged attack Gavaskar’s average dropped to 40.
2. In 8 tests Gavaskar played against Hadlee he scored 36 apiece !!!
3. Sunny scored 5 hundreds in Australia but when Lillie played his numbers went down drastically .

But we refuse to believe them. For us GAVASKAR WAS THE KING OF MYTHOLOGY .

A myth honors its subjects establishing something in physical or social world …

Let us pause here and think of 1971 tour . Sunny went on his maiden tour and scored 774@154.80.It was a very very weak WEST INDIAN ATTACK. But the crux of the matter was it was not done earlier . Indian batsmen before 1971 had scored heavily here and there but not with such ruthless consistency in a series . The sheer volume inspired awe .

And in Gavaskar there was absolute novelty . An Indian great who was up there with the very best of the world . Who created records never thought of before . That was illusion of which he was the creator.

If you break the myth : The West Indians were a scary lot - Sunny ended with 13 centuries against them . Enough to create the pace bowling myth.

Aussies were a force to beat at home . Gavaskar scored a 100 in each of their major test venues . That was enough to create the legend .

Looking at the granular details however , gives birth to shocking contraries far from the dreams of mythology . Thus, we have the infallible ideal GODHEAD of a batting template called SUNNY. The myth continued misty eyed from one generation to another .

1989, 1996, 2008 saw 3/4 more boys donning the same myth as the game moved on . Newer stars were born … But 70’s remained very special . They were the primordial origin of mythology of Indian cricket . Sunny Gavaskar will continue to rule the consciousness of Indian cricket fans - including YOURS TRULY. He will remain the pioneer and trendsetter godhead in the mythically loads folklore of Indian cricket . And that in a way more than one , sums up the in abominable greatness of a lesser mortal called SUNIL MANOHAR GAVASKAR . India’s first cricket ICON…

 

Rahul DAS

Kolkata

11.06.2024