Sunil Gavaskar, The little master.

[truetrini]

As a West Indian and cricket lover I can never ever forget the torment Sunil Gavaskar inflicted upon us in The Queens Park oval Trinidad and Sabina Park Jamaica.

Please listen to this tribute song to the little master! The greatest opening batsman in the history of the game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tBp1ClIDys

[bhagatghavri]

Gavagskar is my favorite cricketer. Sunny is the best opening batsman. His performance was excellent. He sets several records.

[bhagatghavri]

Gavagskar is my favorite cricketer. Sunny is the best opening batsman. His performance was excellent. He sets several records.

[PKBasu]

Thanks truetini for that wonderful clip of Lord Relator's famous calypso song about Sunny Gavaskar. I had read about it, but first heard the song only about six months ago, and it is great to hear it again through this YouTube video.

Sunny was truly the greatest test opening batsman of all time. His amazing success against the West Indies (and in the West Indies) at the height of Windies' fast bowlers' powers was perhaps the crowning aspect of his career. For me the most memorable of his innings was the 121 he made against Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi -- getting to his hundred off 94 balls. His bat had flown out of his hand when he tried to fend off a Marshall bouncer (and got caught at square leg) during the previous test at Kanpur. Newspapers were counselling him to retire. But Sunny responded with one of the spectacular counter-attacks in the game's history, hooking Marshall and Holding for sixes early in the innings to stamp his authority over them. The square cuts off the fastest bowlers in the world -- including one that was executed after skipping two steps out toward point -- have stayed most indelibly in my mind.

[suresh]

@truetini Thanks for the link.

Lyrics to Gavaskar: Source

Gavaskar

This intricately rhymed composition is the greatest cricket calypso ever written, and one of Relator's most beloved songs. Even in India! It recounts a famous 1971 cricket match in which the Indian team, led by its outstanding batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, roundly defeated the West Indies. It spotlights Relator's flawless phrasing as he dances through the long lists of complicated Indian names. Rhyming the names of all these Indian cricketers is no skylark, as they say in Trinidad, but Relator makes it seem effortless. "Writing it was easy!" he laughs. "I'm a cricket fan, and I was there. I saw everything, so putting the words together came like second nature. I almost extempoed [improvised] that entire calypso. What I had to write was the names of the cricketers, and rhyme it so I wouldn't have to memorize it. But it was automatic." Automatic or not, this is one of the most spectacular lyrics in all calypso.



A lovely day for cricket
Blue skies and gentle breeze
The Indians are awaiting now
To play the West Indies
A signal from the umpire
The match is going to start
The cricketers come on the field
They all look very smart ...

Erapalli Prasanna
Jeejeebhoy and Wadekar
Krishnamurthy and Vishnoo Mankad
Them boys could real play cricket
On any kinda wicket
They make the West Indies team look so bad
We was in all kinda trouble
Joey Carew pull a muscle
Clive Lloyd get 'bout three run out
We was in trouble without a doubt

(CHORUS)
It was Gavaskar
De real master
Just like a wall
We couldn't out Gavaskar at all, not at all
You know the West Indies couldn't out Gavaskar at all

Ven-kat-a-ra-ghavan
Bedi, in a turban
Vijay Jaisimha, Jayantilal
They help to win the series
Against the West Indies
At Sabina Park and Queen's Park Oval
A hundred and fifty-eight by Kanhai
Really sent our hopes up high
Noriega nine for ninety-five
The Indian team they still survive

(CHORUS)

Govindraj and Durani
Solkar, Abid Ali
Dilip Sardesai and Viswanath
They make West Indies bowlers
Look like second raters
When those fellas came out here to bat
West Indies tried Holder and Keith Boyce
They had no other choice
They even try with Uton Dowe
But ah sure that they sorry they bring him now

(CHORUS)

Little Desmond Lewis
Also Charlie Davis
Dey take a little shame from out we face
But Sobers as the captain
He want plenty coachin'
Before we cricket end up in a disgrace
Bedi hear that he became a father
So he catch out Holford in the covers
But when Sobers hear he too had a son
He make duck and went back in the pavilion

(CHORUS)

[prasen9]

This case is a classic case of why teleportation in PageRank (I am too lazy to explain, let's just translate loosely to "serendepity") is a good thing (in moderation). Bhagavat Ghavri spammed this one into revival and beautiful conversation ensued.

[PKBasu]

Thanks truetini for that wonderful clip of Lord Relator's famous calypso song about Sunny Gavaskar. I had read about it, but first heard the song only about six months ago, and it is great to hear it again through this YouTube video.

Sunny was truly the greatest test opening batsman of all time. His amazing success against the West Indies (and in the West Indies) at the height of Windies' fast bowlers' powers was perhaps the crowning aspect of his career. For me the most memorable of his innings was the 121 he made against Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi -- getting to his hundred off 94 balls. His bat had flown out of his hand when he tried to fend off a Marshall bouncer (and got caught at square leg) during the previous test at Kanpur. Newspapers were counselling him to retire. But Sunny responded with one of the spectacular counter-attacks in the game's history, hooking Marshall and Holding for sixes early in the innings to stamp his authority over them. The square cuts off the fastest bowlers in the world -- including one that was executed after skipping two steps out toward point -- have stayed most indelibly in my mind.

I had the pleasure of having Sunny and Marshneil Gavaskar over for tea at our home in Manila last month. We had met serendipitously at a retreat called The Farm at San Benito (in the Philippines), which happens to be owned by a Nepali tycoon called Binod Chaudhury. After the great man walked into lunch at the resort's small vegan restaurant, I initiated several long conversations with my boyhood cricketing hero. (More about that perhaps when I write a cricket book...). But I asked him what he had done to prepare for that most unusual of his innings, the 121 at the Kotla (his 29th test century, which brought him level with Bradman's total haul) -- particularly the hooks and pulls. He merely said that he decided that -- since the cautious approach was not yielding good results (a few runs, feeling in good form, then getting out) -- he would use the hook and pull, which he hadn't employed much in tests for many years, although he had been "a happy hooker" early in his career. And that's all that made the difference.

I reminded him about the 90 at Motera (Ahmedabad) in the next test, an even more spectacular innings, in a test in which only one other batsman from either side (Jeff Dujon) got past 50 (using the bat Gavaskar had given him after he made the 29th century!). He started that innings with an innovative shot: there was just one over bowled before lunch on the second day at the start of India's first innings; Holding bowled a bouncer straight at Gavaskar's face, he bent his back backwards and delicately placed the ball over the slips for four, tucked his SG bat under his arm and headed back to the pavilion for lunch. I proposed to him that he had thus invented the lap shot: he said, "no no, that is the ramp shot; the lap shot was invented in the IPL" probably by Dilshan.