From: rajesh@quince (Rajesh Raman)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Re: 'Gavaskar the Great'
Date: 20 Jan 1993 22:40:28 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: quince.wpi.edu
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Uday Rajan (urajan@leland.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
: In article <1ji3kjINN3g3@bigboote.WPI.EDU> rajesh@juniper (Rajesh Raman) writes:
: >
: >	Except for the Kapil incident have we heard anything negative
: >	about him ? 
: >
: 
: Gavaskar was probably the best/greatest Indian batsman I'll ever see, but,
: over the years, I was increasingly disenchanted with some of his antics.
: - You have already mentioned the Kapil incident.
: - Gavaskar has also had a long-running feud with Bedi (I was no great fan
: of Bedi as a captain - after all, he's from Delhi, and so an arch-enemy (-:),
: but he is the greatest spinner India has produced). This probably started 
: sometime during India's tour to England in 1974, when Wadekar and Bedi had
: several public run-ins, was "cemented" when Gavaskar replaced Bedi as captain
: after the 1978 tour to Pakistan, and continues to this day. On the last 
: Indian tour to England (yes, 1990), Gavaskar and Bedi demeaned themselves and
: Indian cricket by choosing to air their dirty laundry in public under the 
: guise of reporting on that series.

  Everyone has feuds man. But as I remember the 1990 incident, Gavaskar
  had just refused membership of the MCC and  Bedi took it upon himself
  to speak on the behalf of the Indian team, which happened to be
  touring England at that time anbd Bedi was the manager, and lambasted
  Gavaskar for what he did. The tone of what he said was bad. As far as
  I can see, it was Bedi's fault. He wasn't provoked by Gavaskar or
  anything. So this cannot be held against Gavaskar. And Gavaskar didn't
  say anything half as bad as Bedi. He only defended himself as anyone
  else would have done.

: - There was the time Gavaskar tried to call his partner (Chauhan) off the 
: field when he (Gavaskar) was delcared lbw to Lillee at Melbourne in 1982-83.
: The manager of the team (I think it was Air Commodore Durrani - no relation
: to Salim) thwarted that. Rather churlish display for a captain.

  Agreed. Selfish and immature, he sure was, but understandable. He
  had been doing really badly and that that was the last innings for him
  to make a decent score and he was on the 80's or so, when he got a bad
  decision.

: - On the 1983 tour of India to the West Indies, Gavaskar made some sorry 
: excuse for not being able to come with the rest of the party, and landed
: up just a few days before the first Test in Kingston, missing the tour match
: there. This, of course, was after he called the Kingston spectators 
: "hounds baying for blood" or something equally charming in his book 
: "Sunny Days". Not having been there in 1976, I can't attack or defend his
: choice of phrase, but he should be willing to live with the consequences
: of his actions.

  The excuse part I wasn't aware of. Thanks. But he was there in 1976, 
  and probably had a really bad time in that series when so many guys
  got injured ( remember Nari Contractor ). So that probably had
  something to do with what he saw there in 1976. Wecan sit in judgement
  on something we do not know about.

: - And, even though I'm from Bombay myself, and have seen several players 
: from there (including Gavaskar) play in local Bombay club cricket before
: they ever played a Test, some of the players he imposed on the Indian team
: were serious jokers. The pick of them all, of course, was Suru Nayak (Ghulam
: Parkar was at least a good fielder). In one Test he played in England, he
: batted at 10, behind all except Doshi, and bowled 10 overs in an England
: total of something like 550.

  Did Shastri come in because of him, or was it some other Godfather? I
  can't comment on that. That test was probably in the doldrums by
  then.

: - And how about that 36 not out in 60 overs in the World Cup in 1975? 
: I doubt if Gavaskar has ever stayed through 60 overs for 36 runs in a Test
: Match! Though he always denied it, he must have been trying to make some
: sort of statement - who knows what, though.

  Hey! You can't assassinate his character with this. Happens with all
  cricketers some time or the other. Not exactly this, but similar
  stuff.

: - Finally, his captaincy was rather less than imaginative. Remember that
: long stalemate he played out with Fletcher in 1980-81, after winning 
: the first of six Tests on a Wankhede dirt-track?

  How does this show his character in a bad light ?

--

Rajesh Raman

--

Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket