Sunil Gavaskar

1. (born 10 July 1949) is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005. Gavaskar was widely admired for his .....

Factuals

2. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. Born 10 July 1949, Bombay. Major Teams India, Somerset, Bombay. Known As Sunny Gavaskar. Batting Style Right Hand Batsman. Bowling Style Right Arm Medium. Other ICC Match Referee.Currently retired from First Class Cricket Sunil Gavaskar writes regular columns in Newspapers, Sports magazines and for The Professional Management Group. He is also a very popular Television Commentator on International Sports Channels. Su .....

Early Life

3. Sunil Gavaskar was born on the 10th of July 1949 at Mumbai, and started playing Cricket right since his school days. In the year 1966 he was declared the Best Schoolboy Cricket of the year in India. He had scored 246, 222 and 85 runs in School Cricket. He made his debut in Ranji Trophy in the year 1968 69 with a match against Karnataka although he scored a duck in the match and was out for a 0 score. But in the next match against Rajasthan he sco .....

Test Debut

4. The Test Cricket debut of Sunil Gavaskar was made in a Test match against West Indies played at Port of Spain on 6th of March 1971. He scored 132 runs in this match, getting India its first over Test victory over West Indies. In the 5th Test match between India and West Indies, he scored 124 and 220 runs in both the innings, helping India to score its first Test Series victory over West Indies, which was not repeated for a period of 35 years to c .....

One Day International

5. Gavaskar made his One Day International (ODI) Cricket debut in an ODI match against England played at the Leeds ground on 13th of July 1974, where he scored 28 runs off 35 balls. .....

Captaincy

6. Sunil Gavaskar also stayed the Captain of the Indian Cricket team for some time, but his record as the Captain has not been much impressive, as a bigger number of matches he led the team into turned out to be drawn. He led the team to 47 Test matches, out of which 9 were won, 8 were lost and 30 were drawn. Under his Captaincy, the Indian Cricket team played 37 ODI matches, out of which 14 were won, 21 were lost and 2 went without any result.Sunil .....

Overall Performance

7. In his overall Test Cricket career, Sunil Gavaskar played 125 Test matches and scored 10122 runs including 34 centuries and 45 half centuries, with an average of 51.12 runs and a highest score of 236 Not Out. Regarding his ODI Cricket career, he played 108 matches. He scored 3092 in them including 1 century and 27 half centuries, with an average score of 35.13 runs and a highest score of 103 runs. .....

Other Achievements

8. Sunil Gavaskar has been conferred upon Padma Bhushan, and had been appointed the honorary Sheriff of Mumbai in the year 1994. Having written 4 books upon Cricket, he has also been named the advisor of the Indian Cricket team, and the Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee. In his honor, a Test Cricket Series between India and Australia has been named jointly after him and the Australian Cricketer Allan Border, as Border Gavaskar Trophy. .....

Achievements And Accolades

9. Gavaskar very much became a public figure, winning the highest of national and state awards.Despite all these achievements, he is easily accessible and humble. He has the charm and the ability to disarm his critics and win friends. By his outstanding performances, Sunil Gavaskar won many man of the match awards. Sunny Gavaskar was the member of the world cup winning team in 1983. In the year 1985, Sunny led the team to victory in the World Champi .....

Early Promise

10. Sunil Gavaskar had a great cricketing heritage in his family. His father was a good club cricketer in his days. Gavaskars early obsession for the game was harnessed by his mother. Cricket fascinated Gavaskar ever since he was a little boy. In his childhood, Sunny used to play cricket with his mother in the small gallery of their apartment. He played with his mother with a tennis ball. From the very begging he showed a lot of promise. Once, playin .....

Turning Point

11. Joining the St. Xaviers high School proved the turning point of Gavaskars carrier as the school boasted of many recognized players, including Ashok Mankad. Playing for Bombay, Sunny scored 246 in the Cooch Behar Trophy in 1965 66. Sunils prolific run getting saw him get selected for the All India schools team against the touring London Schoolboys. Young Gavaskar was awarded with the J.C.Mukherjee Trophy for the Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the yea .....

Ups And downs

12. His perfect technique and temperament made him one of the greatest batsmen of all times but Sunil Gavaskar could not adjust to the demands of the one day cricket. He was a technician and he wasnt comfortable in playing strokes, which did not form part of the coaching manuals. Just imagine, he could score only 36 not out in a match of 60 overs against England. His only century in the ODIs came against the New Zealand in the Reliance World cup, 198 .....

Important Statistics

13. Test Debut India v West Indies at Port of Spain, 2nd Test, 1970 71. Last Test India v Pakistan at Bangalore, 5th Test, 1986 87. ODI Debut India v England at Leeds, Prudential Trophy, 1974. Last ODI India v England at Bombay, World Cup, 1987 88. First Class Debut Vazir Sultan Colts XI v Dungarpur XI at Hyderabad, 1966 67. Last First Class Match Rest of the World v M.C.C. at Lords, 1987. Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1980. .....

Overview

14. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is probably the only technically correct cricketer in the world. Many players have big records but nobody ever played cricket straighter than Sunny Gavaskar.He is a textbook of cricket technique. His records suggest he was a great cricketer,ofcourse,but how many of you have seen a batsman play a bowlers backdrive such that it travelled just about four inches past the stumps on the opposite end to reach the boundary even bef .....

ICC Match Referee Records

15. Test Debut West Indies v England at Kingston, 1st Test, 1993 94 Test Appearances 1 ODI Debut West Indies v England at Bridgetown, 1st ODI, 1993 94 Latest ODI West Indies v England at Port of Spain, 5th ODI, 1993 94 ODI Appearances 5 .....

Overtook Bradmans test record

16. The Pakistans test series was followed by a six Test series against the touring West Indies at the height of their powers. The First Test was held in Kanpur and India were crushed by an innings. Gavaskar had his bat knocked out of his hand by a hostile delivery from Malcolm Marshall before being dismissed. In the Second Test in Delhi, Gavaskar delivered his riposte to Marshall, hooking him for a consecutive four and six to start his innings. Gava .....

International farewell

17. In 1985 86, India toured Australia, playing against a team in a poor form slump. India were unable to capitalise as all three Tests were drawn, but Gavaskar did. He scored an unbeaten 166 in the First Test in Adelaide and 172 in the Third Test in Sydney, ending the series with 352 runs at 117.33. A three Test tour of England saw him score only 185 runs at 30.83, which India won 2 0 despite his unproductivity. In 1986 87, Gavaskars final season in .....

Style

18. Gavaskar was also a fine slip fielder and his safe catching in the slips helped him become the first Indian (excluding wicket keepers) to take over a hundred catches in Test matches. In one ODI against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1985, he took four catches and helped India defend a small total of 125. Early in his Test career, when India rarely used pace bowlers, Gavaskar also opened the bowling for a short spell on occasions if only one pace bowler w .....

Outside cricket

19. Gavaskar has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan. In December 1994 he was appointed the Sheriff of Mumbai, an honorary post, for a year. After retirement, he has been a popular, if sometimes controversial commentator, both on TV and in print. He has written four books on cricket Sunny Days (autobiography), Idols, Runs n Ruins and One Day Wonders. He also served as an advisor to the India national cricket team during the home series against Aust .....

Controversies

20. In a notorious ODI performance in 1975, he opened the batting and managed just 36 (not out) off 174 balls (scoring just one four). Replying to Englands 334 from 60 overs, India managed only 132 for 3 from the 60 overs. It was alleged that Gavaskar deliberately performed poorly in that match, due to his annoyance with the promotion of Srinivas Venkataraghavan to the captaincy. He later claimed that he simply could not adjust to the pace of the gam .....