Mumbai: One can never be tired of listening to anecdotes revolving around the life of Sunil Gavaskar. It was, therefore, interesting to hear a few tales of Gavaskar during the legendary opening batsman’s 76th birthday celebrations, organised by the Legends’ Club at the Cricket Club of India on Wednesday evening. Yajurvindra Singh recalled an incident during the 1979 Lord’s Test between India and England when a steward refused entry to Gavaskar at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Stadium as the cricketing great didn’t have a ‘pass,’ even though he was a superstar by then. “It so happened that Gavaskar had promised passes for the Lord’s Test. So, he came out of the Lord’s gate to give the passes to his friend while wearing slippers. However, afterwards, the steward at Lord’s refused to let Gavaskar in. So, I went there and I told that security guard: ‘This is Mr Gavaskar and he’s going to be opening for us. He needs to come in!’ (However), till he didn’t have a ticket or a pass, the steward wasn’t going to let him in at Lord’s. And Sunil had naturally forgotten his pass. So, I had to ring up the secretary of the club. He came, and we finally made that chap understand. Although people were taking (Gavaskar’s) autograph. The British guy knew exactly who he (Gavaskar) was, but he harassed him right there at the gate.” In the same Lord’s Test later, Gavaskar made fun of the whole incident in his own inimitable way. “We were playing against the MCC at Lord’s. I remember that Dickie Bird was the umpire. To indulge in some fun, Sunil had got one of those ugly masks, which he wore while standing at second slip. So, Dickie Bird (the umpire) told him that ‘Mr Gavaskar, you are disturbing the batsman.’ Gavaskar responded to him by saying: ‘Which rule says that I’m not allowed to wear a mask while standing at second slip.‘ ‘No, you are disturbing everybody,’ Bird replied. ‘I’m not disturbing anyone. The batsman is concentrating on that (the other) side,’ Gavaskar retorted. ‘No, you are disturbing me!’ Bird replied! That, you know, was Sunil.”
For the record, Gavaskar scored 42 & 59 in that Test, which was drawn.Who is Sunny? Yajurvindra revealed a recent meeting of his and Gavaskar’s with Amitabh Bachchan, in which the duo asked the Bollywood icon to resolve an old ‘feud’ between them about who held the ‘rights’ to the name ‘Sunny’ since both were fondly called by this name. “I told Amitabh Bachchan: ‘We always have this problem that both of us are called ‘Sunny.’ We have been trying to solve this fight over who actually is Sunny for a long, long time. I’ve always told him that you are Sunny because the Englishmen couldn’t call you Sunil, whereas I’ve been Sunny, because my name Yajurvindra is to do with the Sun God.’ We decided that the learned Bachchan would be the right man to approach (with this issue) and settle this issue for once and all. Unfortunately, we did so at Sunil’s annual party,” the 72-year-old said. Bachchan, of course, wisely chose to let the ball ‘zip past his off-stump,’ so to say. “Bachchan was very smart. He didn’t make any decision. Although I told him that I watched him bowl left-arm spin in a benefit match, etc. I tried everything, but to no avail because it was Sunil’s party. But I did tell Amitabh that he was very fortunate that Sunil didn’t take up acting, although he did do one movie, because this chap imitates you, and can definitely imitate anyone anywhere in the world. I said that if he had taken up acting, you’d have had to play cricket!” chuckled Yajurvindra.
