New Delhi: In Indian cricket circles, ‘Sunny bhai’ ,the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, is arguably the most popular way to address a cricketer. Next in the list is ‘Anshu bhai’, the respectable way Anshuman Gaekwad, the gutsy opening partner of Gavaskar, was called by various generations. Youngsters would address him respectfully as ‘Anshu sir’, though.
Gaekwad, known for his superb temperament and gutsy batsmanship against fast bowling without wearing a helmet, stood out among his peers for his sophistication. Belonging to a royal family of Baroda, he maintained elegance at all times, and hardly lost his cool in challenging times.
Kiran More, a former India wicket-keeper and an ex-chairman of the national selection committee, recalled how growing up in Baroda he was impressed by Gaekwad’s demeanour. “He always maintained his dignity; he always interacted with people with adab (respect),” More told ThePrint on Thursday.
Even when the Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) was constituted in 2019 and Gaekwad became one of its two player representatives on the BCCI Apex Council, he was not in favour of taking the Board head on. Unlike some of his ICA colleagues, he preferred getting things done for the ICA and retired cricketers through discussions with the decision makers.
Gaekwad served the Indian team as its head coach with success across two stints. The first one was between 1997 and 1999, and the second was an interim arrangement in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal in 2000. He guided India to the final of the 2000 ICC Knock-Out Tournament, as the Champions Trophy was then known, eventually losing to New Zealand.
From off-spin to opening batting
Son of former India captain Dattajirao Gaekwad, the former India opener as a young boy attended Convent of Jesus and Mary and Maharani Chimnabai High School in Baroda. Initially, he bowled off-spin and batted lower down the order. It was only later that he concentrated and focussed on batting — earning promotion to open the innings — while bowling took a backseat.
In Test cricket, Gaekwad batted at all positions from opening the innings to No.8, barring No.4. He opened the innings with Gavaskar in 29 Tests. Interestingly, he was Gavaskar’s opening partner in 49 out of the 50 innings he played as an opener.
Gavaskar explains the overall makeup of the gutsy and gritty batsman that Gaekwad was. “He showed very good judgment around the off-stump and that was what promoted him from middle order to opening the batting for India within a year,” Gavaskar wrote in his foreword to ‘Guts Amidst Bloodbath – The Aunshuman Gaekwad Narrative’, written by Aditya Bhushan and released last year.
Overall, Gaekwad scored 1,985 runs at 30.28 in 40 Tests, with two centuries. One of his centuries was a double ton — a patient 201, for which he batted for 11 hours against Pakistan at Gandhi Stadium, Jalandhar, in 1983-84. And in 15 One-Day Internationals, he scored 269 runs, with a solitary half-century. His international career spanned from 1975 to 1987.
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Battling thunderbolts
India’s tour of the West Indies in 1976 is known for the host’s all-out pace attack against the visiting batsmen. Several batsmen, including Gaekwad, were injured during the four-Test series that the West Indies won 2-1.
Gaekwad stood out for bravely standing up to the short pitched bowling, taking blows on his body and shedding blood. His dogged defence earned him all-round praise. Although he scored just 145 runs in the three Tests, his 81 (retired hurt) in the first innings of the fourth and final Test at Sabina Park, Kingston, was the best example of solid defiance against ruthless fast bowling from Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel, Bernard Julien, and Vanburn Holder.
Gaekwad was hit on his ear by a sharply rising delivery and blood rushed out of it. He was taken to a hospital, along with his other teammates. In the second innings, Gaekwad was among the five batsmen who couldn’t bat due to injuries sustained — as India were ‘all out’ for 97 and lost the Test by 10 wickets.
The Gaekwad tales
Bhushan, the writer, fondly recalls his meetings with Gaekwad while writing the book. They met up several times, and the writer even stayed at Gaekwad’s home in Baroda once. “To me, he was amazing. He would patiently hear me out, my ideas, and then he would give his opinion. He was straightforward, but never got angry. I would call him twice or thrice every week to discuss things during the course of writing the book,” he reminisces.
“Once I spent a full day with him and the night at his home in Baroda. He treated me like a family guest, and even asked me what I would like to eat, like an elder of a family would do. He didn’t need to do that. He also took me around Baroda and showed places of interest for the book. He was like a guide to me.”
The book was launched in the presence of Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, and Ravi Shastri among others in May last year at the revered Cricket Club of India in Mumbai.
The book has two forewords. Apart from Gavaskar, Gaekwad’s good friend Viswanath has written the other.
‘Second’ innings
After his retirement — he scored a century in his last first-class match in 1992 — Gaekwad became a selector, coach, TV expert, a member of the BCCI’s Advisory Committee, an administrator, and a national selector. In all his roles, he maintained his dignity and hardly got angry at anything.
As secretary of the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA), Gaekwad was instrumental in constructing an independent office premises for the body within the city in 2014. Until then, the BCA office had been operating from a rented place. He was also keen to have Michael Holding — the man who felled him in Sabina Park — as coach of the BCA, for which he was in talks with the legendary West Indies fast bowler. But for some reason the deal couldn’t be finalised.
At the time of his death, Gaekwad was president of the Indian Cricketers’ Association. One of his two sons, Shatrunjay, is also a first-class cricketer, having represented Baroda in 23 matches and 10 limited overs games.
Kiran More says he benefitted much by watching Gaekwad from close quarters on India’s 1983 tour to the West Indies. “Growing up in Baroda, I watched his gutsy and gritty batting. Then, I learned a lot on the 1983 tour of the West Indies. He was a proud man and he carried it on his sleeve,” More, who was deputy to Syed Kirmani on that tour, adds.
Kudos and honours
Gaekwad deserved the accolades that came in his 55-plus years’ association with cricket in various capacities. Apart from recognition and appreciation he received from others, the BCCI honoured him with the prestigious C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, and recently sanctioned an amount for his cancer treatment after Kapil Dev and others publicly requested the Board to help him.
‘Anshu bhai’ may no longer answer telephone calls, but he has left behind a legacy that his family and Baroda would be proud of.
The writer has covered cricket for over three decades, based in New Delhi. He tweets at @AlwaysCricket
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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