When this writer asked Sunil Gavaskar before he turned 60 as to which friend he missed the most, he took no time to say it was Eknath Solkar, who died in 2005.

Class of 1971 don't forget to remember true hero Solkar

When this writer asked Sunil Gavaskar before he turned 60 as to which friend he missed the most, he took no time to say it was Eknath Solkar, who died in 2005.

Solkar was missed dearly yesterday too when members of the victorious 1971 Indian teams to West Indies and England were honoured at Mumbai's Nehru Centre.

"Yes, I missed Ekki the most today," said Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who was the architect of India's Oval Test win over Ray Illingworth's Englishmen in the summer of 1971. "Apart from being a perfect team man, Ekki used to create wicket opportunities for me by fielding close-in. The main man responsible for our Oval Test win was Solkar. He stood at short legu00a0-- a suicidal position. In those days there were no helmets and other protection.

Wadekar spoke about how Solkar had Knott, the world's best wicketkeeper in his time, 'stumped'. Knott had the habit of marking his guard with a bail. So when he walked in to bat in the second innings of the Oval Test, Solkar hid the bails in his pocket. When Knott turned to mark his guard, he couldn't find the bails. Wadekar said this put Knott off track and he was dismissed for one.

Indeed, Solkar would have entertained the packed auditorium with his off-field deliveries yesterday. Wonder what he would have said to chief guest Garry Sobers, who Solkar did not spare when the West Indies captain tried to tease him.

"You play your way, let me play my way," Solkar is believed to have told Sobers in the 1971 Barbados Test.

"Ekki was the perfect teammate in good or bad days. When we were down, he made it a point to cheer us up and convince us that the next day would be better," said Salim Durrani, who claimed the crucial wickets of Sobers and Clive Lloyd in the Trinidad Test which India won in 1971. Farokh Engineer revealed that while some of the team members enjoyed their drinks after a hard day, Solkar would be seen rubbing ice on his
sore legs.

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