Vinod Khanna's first love was cricket, not films!

Vinod Khanna with exIndia captain Diana Edulji during the ICC Womens World Cup at Brabourne Stadium in 2013 PicAtul KambleIf an exceedingly handsome hero is no more no less a cricket addict was Vinod Khanna Indeed he astonished me when he said My first love is cricket not films There and then I marked him out as the man to interview for The Illustrated Weekly of India World Cup Special June 10 1979 It is from that four lakhplus recordbreaking issue that I here quote Vinod Khanna Never shall I forget his telling me that this game was more difficult to play than any role he had ever played if only because there were no retakes in cricketBetter than the restI first saw him batting in that lark called a film stars cricket match Vinod remember considered himself to be no whit inferior to Amitabh Bachchan as an actor It was Amitabh as tall as Salim Durrani now bowling leftarm spin round the wicket to Vinod And you could instinctually tell that Vinod had played the game at a much higher level You saw him doing right every single thing that all other filmstars did wrongPhotos Vinod Khannas family celebs at his funeral in MumbaiYou know noted Vinod how Sunil Gavaskar began rivalling Geoffrey Boycott as an opener Sunny so came on because he knew which Bob Willis ball to leave alone If you know which ball to leave alone the ball to hit automatically comes alongI met him on the sets of Gulzars Meera made up as the Rana I queried him on his best role to come His response When are you asking me the right question By which Vinod meant Lets talk cricket if we are to talk turkey Overbusy as a topflight hero then he made time for me on a drive to a shootLets get goingI met him early in the morning at his home and he simply said Lets get going As he motored down to Panvel for the shoot I was by his side the typewriter on my lap I ticked away even as he drove himself hard Viswanath may be in a class by himself he observed but my favourite is Gavaskar How meticulously careful Sunny is to get in line with the ball That left foots always in place And how to this day he uses his feet Ive seen batsmen forgetting the use of their feet as they get on in years But Gavaskars an exceptionSunny his favouriteSunils most striking trait is his gift of relaxation continued Vinod This is a gift in any vocation Watch a great actor on the sets see how relaxed he is before a tense scene Watch Gavaskar just before he takes his stance for a delivery from Andy Roberts see how relaxed he is Its relaxation first concentration after If you learn to relax in the middle there in front of a crowd of 50000 you automatically learn to concentrate when the moment of action comes That is even as you relax you concentrate and bit by bit every bit falls into place Yet its no joke relaxing against the fastest bowling in the world In Test cricket you have to learn to fight it out and make them bowl to you This Sunil did all the wayIn pictures Vinod Khanna passes away 10 memorable roles of the actorGavaskar at the wicket is the picture of perfection Sunil said he wanted to go to Packer so that he may face the best bowling and get to know how good he really is Theres a creative talent talking Its only the creative talent that will invite such a challenge the lesser talent will shy away But we read the wrong meaning into it and pontificated that Sunil was after the Packer money In denying Sunil that first opportunity to go to Packer we denied talentObstacles slammedA great actor would welcome the opportunity to act with the best So would a great cricketer seek an opportunity to play with the best And the best players were then with Packer We should therefore have welcomed the opportunity to see how good Gavaskar and Viswanath were when pitted against the worlds best Instead we put obstacles in their wayAs he said that we found ourselves at his Panvel shooting location It was with an effort that Vinod moved away from the game for which he lived It was obvious that he loved the game more than the prize films