Batting icon Sunil Gavaskar attended Madhav Apte's funeral at Shivaji Park yesterday after arriving from his commentary duties in Bangalore where India took on South Africa for the third and final T20 international on Sunday.

"Extremely sad at the passing away of Shri Madhavrao Apte. He was a true aficionado of our beloved game and just couldn't have enough of it. The cricketing get-togethers at his house made for memorable evenings with enlightening cricket talk with the who's who of cricket. I will miss those evenings, listening to him along with some of the greatest names in Indian cricket," Gavaskar said in a statement. The start of Gavaskar's first-class cricket journey (Irani Cup match in 1967-68) coincided with the end of Apte's domestic career.