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What would have happened if the years of their birth were reversed by some strange turn of fate? The gentleman sitting next to me in that 15x15 feet corner room at the Nagpur cricket stadium was of the opinion that their roles might have got completely reversed. He felt both were the “societal expressions” of their times on the cricketing field. That is why their temperaments differed. While one was careful and defensive, the other seemed aggressive and liberated.
To put it simply, had Tendulkar, 24 years his junior, preceded Gavaskar, in all probability he would have played the same brand of cricket. And Gavaskar would have played like Tendulkar… Peter Roebuck analysed it most dispassionately and also provided some food for thought. Let’s hear him out:
“...Each post-colonial nation needs a post-colonial warrior. Gavaskar was that warrior. He had to prove a point through his cricket that Indians were not scared of fast bowling and by extended logic, not scared of anyone in this world…”
Tendulkar’s generation is not post-colonial. It is neither tormented nor troubled by history. It is quite comfortable being East and the West at the same time. Tendulkar, through his cricket, embraces the modern and the ancient together... There is no anger. No torment. No baggage in his approach...
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Meanwhile, the gentleman sitting next to me in the 15x15 room was on a nostalgic plane. I travelled with him to the India of the 1950s — an unsure, uncertain country — about to lose the battle against poverty. His recollections were so real that this listener got somewhat moved… But then, the Sunil Gavaskar story is an emotional story despite the obvious success quotient.
And more so if you were hearing it from the person himself in flesh and blood — GAVASKAR HIMSELF!
Q: Had you been born in 1973, do you think you would have played a different style of cricket?
SMG: I think I would have. If you are brought up in a generation which has seen only Test cricket, if from your childhood you are told to play risk-free cricket, if you are warned never to lift a cricket ball six inches off the ground, then it becomes part of your upbringing...
Q: Being born just two years into an independent India, you had this aversion towards the Whites. You took great pride in fighting them.
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SMG: It could be that when India went overseas, you read all sorts of things in the foreign media. It was terribly one-sided with no adequate response from our side. It is an accomplishment of the British media that they have managed to project their institution as the best in the world. I didn’t fight battles for anyone. I spoke for myself. I, personally, do not get sufficiently enamoured by Lords. I think Eden Gardens is the best cricket ground in this world. And I say it.
Q: Please answer this simple question. Can Sachin be compared to Bradman?
SMG: We would never know. The cricket you display on the ground, your particular style, is only a product of the times that you live in. On a subconscious level, that plays a very important role. So it is not fair to compare people from different eras. My mental make-up, for instance, was shaped by what I saw and encountered in my growing up years. When I was growing up, India didn’t have even one billionaire… There was so much poverty...
Gavaskar grew up in the heart of south Mumbai, in one of those simple middle-class localities — Chikalwadi. From there, against the backdrop of the severe economic crisis and gloom prevailing in his country, he fought his own battle… If Sachin is the story of a genius honed by a happy, protective family, Gavaskar was the champion who wrote his own dialogues.
Taking into account all forms of the game, Sachin assumes a bigger space. Perhaps, between the two, Sachin is more talented. The steadiness of his purpose is unprecedented not only in India but also in world cricket. Not only has Sachin shown more durability but his achievements in one-day cricket are way ahead... He also mastered T20 which is as different from Test cricket as soccer is to rugby. But if you take into consideration Test cricket exclusively, Gavaskar compares favourably with Tendulkar.
Gavaskar scored 10,122 runs in 125 Tests. He made 34 hundreds averaging at 51.12. Tendulkar, in his first 125 Tests, scored 10,281 runs. He made 35 hundreds at an average of 57.12.
Gavaskar, however, has 45 half centuries to Sachin’s 41. And if you consider that in his time the bowling attacks were relatively stronger, wickets were kept uncovered for quite a number of years in his career, that he had no helmet for protection and that there were no restrictions on a bouncer, both appear somewhat equal.
It is just that Sachin remained much more focused on his job. An element of tranquility has always characterised his persona. The award-winning filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh finds a strong similarity between Sachin and Rajiv Gandhi. “As a filmmaker, Sourav would appeal to me much more. His persona will be very useful in movies. Sachin won’t appeal to me if I was only looking for an actor. But outside that, Sachin’s tranquility is a huge turn on,” says Rituparno.
Gavaskar was, in sharp contrast, a trade union-activist-cum-lead-performer all rolled into one. He could jolly well dedicate a particular Tagore number to Sachin. At least a few lines…
Oh, daytime traveller remember
That I walked through darkness
with only a lamp in hand…
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Sachin doesn’t feature in Sharmila Tagore’s list of favourite modern day cricketers… but she has profound respect for Sachin’s genius. “Sachin with the bat, to me, is like Naseer in front of the camera…”
Her husband unhesitatingly declares Sachin as the greatest ever Indian cricketer for the sum total of his achievements. Pataudi thinks that for achievements on the field, for his sense of fair play and off-the-field humility, Sachin is the biggest role model. However, if he is asked to nominate the greatest innings ever played by an Indian, the Nawab goes for Gavaskar’s 96 in Bengaluru…
But what possibly makes a majority of the team of the 1980s convinced about his class was Sachin’s 100 at Perth…
Tendulkar’s life changed permanently with that one innings. The entire country has since then looked up to him to provide them with happiness, self-belief and glory. Since then, every time he has gone out to bat, he has carried the aspirations and dreams of a developing nation. Most have looked up to him as a superhero who is supposed to win any tough battle, without realising that the cricket field is not a make-believe world. It is not scripted. As Sourav says, “Actors have an advantage we don’t. Their best shots are taken with the advantage of retakes. In a cricketer’s life there are no retakes…” But who wants to listen to all that? It is much easier putting up a hoarding that says, “God wanted to play cricket, so Sachin was born.”
