Calcutta: Thirty years after his last India appearance, the iconic Sunil Manohar Gavaskar has been honoured in far away Kentucky (thus far associated with a globally popular fast food option), with a Field named after him in Louisville.
It’s a terrific first for Gavaskar. So far, even the legendary Kapil Dev Nikhanj, our first cricket World Cup-winning captain, doesn’t have a stadium/field named after him.
Very odd, but it’s not that Kapil, now 58, has been losing sleep over it.
“I’m delighted for Sunil. It’s wonderful that, decades after he retired, well-wishers in the US decided to name a Field after him...
“My congratulations, of course, to Sunil,” Kapil told The Telegraph on Saturday afternoon.
“See, it’s not for me to say whether there should be stadiums or fields (in India) named after Sunil or myself...
“That is for those who run cricket in our country, the administrators, to ponder over...
“In any case, what’s the guarantee that if a stadium is named after us, it would remain that way for all time to come?
Names of roads, for example, keep getting changed in India...
“Where Sunil and I are concerned, we just did our job. Did it to the best of our abilities and, then, moved on in life...
“That’s how it should be...
“Sunil retired in 1987, while I left cricket in 1994... Hum logon ne sirf apna kaam kiya...
“That people respect us for our achievements, continue to shower us with affection is more than enough...
“Their affection and respect means more than having a cricket facility named after us,” Kapil added in his typically emotional manner.
It’s a point well made.
Time, however, has come for some administrator somewhere to look at honouring Gavaskar, Kapil, Sachin Tendulkar (and Mahendra Singh Dhoni once he retires) suitably.
Naming a Stand or a Gate in their honour cannot be deemed enough. But, then, naming a stadium after an icon won’t fetch votes. Probably that’s why the reluctance.
In the Board, after all, it’s all about votes. Be it at the level of the affiliates or during the Board elections.
But if there can be the Bradman Oval in pretty Bowral, The Lord's — named after Sir Thomas Lord, a first-class cricketer — in London, the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua and the Allan Border Field in Queensland, to name a few, why not a Sunil Gavaskar or a Kapil Dev Stadium in India?
In India, at present only the Vizzy Stadium in Vizianagaram and the Dhruv Pandove Stadium in Patiala are named after cricketers.
The Maharaja of Vizianagaram, or Vizzy, briefly captained India in the 1930s, while the very promising Dhruv (son of former national selector Mahender Pandove) was killed in a road accident just days after his 18th birthday.
