*** The below blog post is a reproduction of an old article on The Little Master, Sunil Gavaskar, written by C. N. Venugopal, and published in a sports magazine of The Hindu in 1966, few years before his India debut. ***
October 13, 1966
Never in the 20-year-history of the All-India Schools cricket did an opening pair massacre the opponents' bowling as the West Zone openers did during the last season against Central Zone. Again, never in the same championships were so many runs (421) scored in so short a period (215 minutes).
The pair concerned, Anwar Qureshi and Sunil Gavaskar, took on all corners and slammed a double century each. When Qureshi left the crease after having knocked up 203 glorious runs, Gavaskar was still there and went on with his innings merrily driving, pulling and cutting all that were hurled at his wicket. He smote them far and wide. Nine of the Central bowlers thundered, spun and yorked; but the stylish Gavaskar stood rooted. He battled on and on "till the cows came home." When the West Zone skipper declared the innings closed at 406 for two, the unconquered hero had amassed 242 runs studded with 42 boundaries in 240 minutes. A fantastic innings indeed!
Talk Of The Town
The stuff that Gavaskar is made of was conclusively proved when he scored another double century in the next match against East Zone. The manner he did it was the talk of the town for days on end. A hundred before lunch and another between lunch and tea! This gives a true indication of the break-neck speed in which he scored. One hundred and sixty-four runs of his score of 222 in 243 minutes came in fours alone. His stylish square-cuts and off-drives off the back-foot left the fielders clapping instead of clasping the ball!
The final between West and North Zones revealed Gavaskar in a new role, that of team man. Two wickets had fallen for 28 - both at the same total. This would have unnerved any one. But not Gavaskar. He became patience personified and in a match-saving, 61-run, fourth-wicket partnership with Eknath Solkar he stemmed the rot. His 85 runs included 12 fours.
Coveted Honour
Consistency thus earned him the coveted honour for the junior cricketers in the country - The J.C. Mukherjee Memorial Prize - last season.
Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, who was born in July 10, 1949, being a nephew of a former Test keeper, was drawn to cricket easily. His parents also took great interest in his career and one could see them keenly watching their son play very often. With the uncle for inspiration and L. B. Kenny as coach Gavaskar fell into the groove very soon.
If his debut in the All-India Schools Championships in 1963 was nothing to write home about, his improvement in the next season was heartening. Opening the campaign with 12 runs against Maharashtra, he rattled up 68 against Saurashtra in the next match. This earned him a berth as reserve in the West Zone team.
Last season he was in full cry. He gave an indication of things to come when he slammed 158 runs against Baroda in the final. He put on 234 runs for the first wicket in partnership with Anwar Qureshi. The tocain was thus sounded.
Sheet Anchor
This light-weight continued to be in the limelight against the London School boys team. It was Gavaskar, who took the early measure of Suffling and Selvey and Boyer and Lewis by scoring the first century in the representative matches. His total of 293 runs also included four double figure knocks - 55 and 15 (not out) at Delhi and 35 and 57 at Kanpur.
He was the sheet anchor of St. Xavier's High School in the local Giles and Harris Shield tournaments, from 1961 till the last season. His ability with the willow came to the fore in the second season when he totalled 400 runs including two centuries against Fellowship and Balmohan Schools in the Giles Shield
He piled up a similar total the following year. In the quarter-final against King George he shone both with bat and ball scoring 129 runs and taking five wickets for 62 runs. Balmohan again had a taste of his batting prowess when he hit up 88 runs.
Acme of Career
By then he had made his mark in the Harris Shield too. In a third round match against Maratha High School, which had Eknath Solkar in its ranks, he carried his bat through with 166 runs including 27 fours. From 0 for one he and Milind Rege took the score to 260!
In the last season, which was the acme of his career so far, he scored 492 runs in all hitting four centuries in the process. His highest - 160 - against Bombay English School was scored before lunch.
Gavaskar has proved a very successful player for the Rajasthan S. C. in the "C" Division of the Kanga League last season - his first - scoring 299 runs, in 13 innings. He remained not out twice and hit 75 runs against Young Mohds. He started this year's campaign in the league for the same club, which has been promoted to the "B" Division, with a century and 70 runs.
A first year science student of the St. Xavier's College, Gavaskar, who has a penchant for the sweep, is material full of promise.
