SMG and the art of gifting

But there is a soft, cheerful, witty, and generous side to Gavaskar, which we saw recently when he did the honours in presenting India women’s cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues a guitar shaped as a bat — courtesy sports gear giants Nike.

As expected, the video went viral and Gavaskar gained more of a reputation for making people feel special. Gavaskar, over the years, has been thoughtful. Thoughtful enough to write a letter of encouragement (written on the bonnet of his car before boarding an international flight for the Bicentenary Test in London) to teenaged Sachin Tendulkar when he missed out on the Bombay Cricket Association’s junior cricketer of the year award in 1987. That was before he presented Tendulkar with a pair of ultra-light Morrant leg guards during the 1989-90 Irani Cup in Mumbai; the game that confirmed 16-year-old Tendulkar’s ticket to Pakistan.

Tendulkar’s first pair of the special leg guards also had a Gavaskar connection. Hemant Kenkre, who was Tendulkar’s first senior division captain at Cricket Club of India presented a pair of the pads to him before the 1987-88 Harris Shield final at the CCI. Those pads were given to Kenkre by Gavaskar way back in 1980. Kenkre told me on Tuesday that Gavaskar — whom he refers to as Dada (elder brother), used them during his epic 221 against England at the Oval in 1979.

If the 1989 pads presentation came before Tendulkar’s maiden tour with India, the 1988 gift was significant from a career point of view as well.

“I felt very proud to wear pads once used by Sunil Gavaskar. I went in to bat thirty minutes before lunch on the first day of the [Shardashram vs Anjuman-I-Islam] final and kept batting for close to two days. I was eventually unbeaten on 346 when we were bowled out before tea on the third day. It was a very significant innings in the context of my career, for shortly afterwards I was included in the list of Probables for the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team,” wrote Tendulkar in Playing It My Way.

While Tendulkar was the beneficiary of Gavaskar’s gloves, his fellow Mumbaikar Sanjay Manjrekar received a bat from the Little Master while playing a match at Cross Maidan. Manjrekar revealed in his book Imperfect how someone told him that Gavaskar was looking for him at one end of the maidan. When Manjrekar met him, he was given a “brand new harrow-sized Gray-Nicolls bat” which Manjrekar’s father had requested him to procure from one of his trips to England. “I remember not walking back to my tent. I must have glided,” wrote Manjrekar.

It is quite clear that Gavaskar has lived with the belief that a cricketer must have the best of tools to practise his art and have the best protection too. Former India batsman Gursharan Singh told me on Tuesday how Gavaskar surprised him by presenting him a pair of batting gloves that would provide adequate protection to the fingers after the Sikh endured a finger injury in the 1989-90 Irani Cup game. 

Gursharan famously walked out to bat with a fractured finger to ensure Tendulkar reached his hundred in the match. “I was amazed by Gavaskar’s gesture. He cared about me and did not want me to get injured again. Those gloves provided extra protection for the fingers,” said Gursharan.

Former Mumbai opening batsman and captain Shishir Hattangadi recalled to me how Gavaskar once noticed that he (Hattangadi) needed a new bat. “I went to his Worli home with him after the game, climbed his loft and pulled out a Duncan Fearnley bat. He also asked me to help myself to a pair of gloves,” Hattangadi told me.

Gavaskar has been known to part with equipment that holds special significance. In 1983, he gifted West Indies wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon the bat with which he went past Sir Donald Bradman’s record tally of 29 Test centuries at Chennai.

Three years later David Frith, the then editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly asked Gavaskar if he had anything for his private museum.

Frith described his moment of elation in his book Caught England, Bowled Australia thus:  “I had in mind perhaps an old sock or jockstrap, but my Indian friend, the only batsman to have made 30 or more centuries in Test cricket [then], beamed that slightly mystic smile as he slowly removed his [England 1986 tour] blazer and handed it to me. I really did think he was joking, but he was not.”

I mentioned earlier how Gavaskar can make people feel good. His very presence and concern made people feel better. In 2017, Gavaskar was at Jaslok Hospital to attend to his mother. He gathered that his Bombay, Associated Cement Companies and Nirlon opening partner Kiran Ashar was hospitalised too. He heads to the ICU and sees Ashar in a semi-conscious state. “C’mon Kiran, let’s walk out to bat. The umpires have called play,” Gavaskar tells his friend, who can barely open his eyes. Ashar’s family is touched. The wicketkeeper-batsman passes away later that year.

Years have passed since Gavaskar saved a family from a hate mob outside his Worli Sea Face apartment during the 1993 bomb blasts. There was no thrill involved in this act, but wherever that family is, they must be thanking Gavaskar every day. We won’t ever see a seething Gavaskar walk off the pitch again like Melbourne 1981, but gestures towards Rodrigues & Co we shall certainly hear and read about.

mid-day’s Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.

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