Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is an Indian cricketer and commentator and is one of the greatest batsmen in the cricket history. He is known to be the first batsmen to 10,000 Test runs in a career. His passion for cricket was evident from his school days and he became popular in his early career due to his brilliant performance. Gavaskar also has many books & movies made on his life and remains quite popular in news & controversies. Today, we’ll look at all these aspects of his life and understand his journey from a broad view.
Sunil Gavaskar – Key Stats
- Full name: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar
- Date of Birth: 10th July, 1949
- Place of birth: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Profession: Cricketer, Commentator
- Parents: Manohar Gavaskar and Meenal Gavaskar
- Spouse: Marshneil Gavaskar
- Children: Rohan Gavaskar
- Books: Straight Drive, IDOLS, The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus, Sunny Days: Sunil Gavaskar’s Own Story.
Sunil Gavaskar – Early Life
Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was born to Manohar Gavaskar and Meenal Gavaskar in Mumbai at 10th July, 1949. He had a passion for cricket from a very young age. He did his schooling from St. Xavier’s High School & was named India’s best School boy Cricketer of the year in 1966. He scored about 246*, 222, and 85 in his final year of secondary education.
Sunil Gavaskar – Family and Personal Life
Sunil Gavaskar was born to a middle class family in Mumbai, Maharashtra. His father’s name is Manohar Gavaskar and his mother’s name is Meenal Gavaskar. His maternal uncle Madhav Mantri was also a retired Indian Cricketer. He is married to Marshneil Mehrotra, the daughter of a leather industrialist. They have a son Rohan Gavaskar who is also a former cricketer but was not successful as his father.
Sunil Gavaskar – Career Timeline
- Domestic Debut During his school days Gavaskar was named as the India’s Best Schoolboy Cricketer in 1966. He had a score of about 246*, 222 and 85 in the final year of his secondary education
He had his first class debut for Vazir Sultan Colts XI against an XI from Durgapur in 1966. He was in the Bombay’s Ranjhi Trophy squad for 2 years - TEST DEBUT
- Sunil Gavaskar won the first test match against West Indies
- He followed with his first century and first test century over the West Indies
- During the England tour his 144 runs lowered at an average of 24
- During West Indies tour Gavaskar totaled over 390 runs at 55.71 for the series
- First Home Test century- In the eight test session against New Zealand and England Gavaskar scored centuries in the first and the last session of the match. The first was 119 and the second was over 259. He scored over 1000 test runs against England in his first test session.
- In the tour of Australia he scored three consecutive test centuries.
- Captaincy A defeat to Australia in 1981 was the most remarkable moment of Gavaskar’s test captaincy. He was the captain of India’s 47 test matches & was handed the ODI captaincy in 1980. After losing to England in 1987, Gavaskar soon announced his retirement
Sunil Gavaskar – Entertainment Career
Gavaskar has also tried acting in silver screen. He has played a role in a Marathi film “Savli Premachi”. He also played a guest role in 1988 in a Bollywood movie “Maalamal”.
He has also sung a Marathi song “Ya Duniyemadhye Thambayaala Vel Konala” written by Shantaram Nandgoankar. This depicted the similarities between real life and cricket life. An Indian film 83 is released in the year 2021 based on the win of India’s World Cup where Sunil Gavaskar’s role is played by Tahir Raj Bhasin and is directed and produced by Anurag Kashyap and Kabir Khan.
Sunil Gavaskar - Books
Sunil Gavaskar wrote several books and autobiographies such as:
- Sunny Days: Sunil Gavaskar’s Own Story.
- The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus
- Straight Drive
- IDOLS
Sunil Gavaskar – Records and Achievements
During his tenure as a cricketer, Gavaskar has made many records and received many awards for it, including:
- First Test cricketer to make over 10,000 runs
- He has a record for the highest number of test centuries
- He scored the most runs in a series 774 against The West Indies
- He has a maximum number of 2749 runs and 13 centuries against West Indies
- Only cricketer to score 4 consecutive centuries at 2 venues
- He is the only cricketer who had partnerships with 18 different players.
- He has a record for scoring centuries in both innings of a test match
- First fielder to get over 100 catches In the Indian Test cricket history
- He was the captain of India from 1978 to 1985 and had a great win of 2-0
- He was named as one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 1980
Sunil Gavaskar - Awards
- 1980- Padma Bhushan award for successful international career representing India. He was awarded by the former Indian President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy.
- Dec 22nd 1994- He was sworn in as Bombay sheriff at Raj Bhawan in Mumbai. He was awarded by former Governor P C Alexander and Chief Minister Sharad Pawar
- 1996- He was honored with The Gavaskar Trophy
- In his home district in Vengurla a stadium was named after him know as “ Gavaskar Stadium”
- 2003- First lecturer
- 2003- First and the only to deliver MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture
- 15th October 2017- He inaugurated a field in Louisville
Sunil Gavaskar - Controversies & Accusations
On 25th March 2008, the ICC Chief executive Malcolm Speed told Gavaskar if he gives up his job of commentator and newspaper columnist then he has to quit his post at ICC. He has also criticized his employer and has accused them for racism. He also had a controversy in the year 2008 for commenting on Sydney’s Test match.
Sunil Gavaskar - The Indian Cricket Legend
Sunil Gavaskar proved that success never comes easily and cements the fact that hard work is the only key to success. He had ups and downs in his life but his passion for cricket never made him give up. He was one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time and was certainly the most successful one. His perfect techniques, concentration and hard work made him one of the greatest crickets of all time.
