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The Rediff Encounter/Sunil Gavaskar

'I kept myself free for the camp...'

Ashish Shukla in Toronto

His top has thinned and, to my eyes, he has put on a bit of weight. But you can't bring him to agree with your view of his profile.

Yes Sunil Gavaskar remains Sunil Gavaskar - object of all attention, and impish as ever. There is a boylike quality in him which has not dimmed over the years. There is another aspect of his persona which continues to amaze you. He has a running column in newspapers across India for close to a decade now, and yet, without quite losing its bite and venom, it has still largely kept him controversy free.

Or put it this way, he has not gone down in esteem of millions of Indian cricket lovers even though it is nearly a dozen years since he last walked out onto a cricket field.

You meet him in Toronto, free of his morning work on television, and he seems pleased as punch. "We have a bet among ourselves (the TV unit)," he grins. "Anyone who gets to complete the toss presentation in less than 120 seconds, gets a dollar. I did yesterday's (Saturday's) in 61 seconds. Today (Sunday) it was 91 seconds."

He must have chuckled less on getting a Test century, of which there were too many -- indeed, more than anyone else -- during his illustrious career.

"I argue with them, I mean, you can't cut a Test captain short and ask him to finish off since you want to keep it below 120 seconds -- but (Aamer) Sohail is different. You ask him anything and he keeps his reply to the barest minimum.

"Do you feel confident going into this match and he says- yes," rambles on Gavaskar, "Sunny" to all of us. "I was at the US Open, before I came over here," he goes off on a tangent. Holidaying, watching tennis? "No, there is an old friend of mine, we played together in our university days, he is a doctor in US. He has been asking me to come over to the States and stay with him. I had a bit of break this time, and decided to go."

Somehow the television people got wind of his presence, and put him up there with Vijay Amritraj, doing commentary -- so in the end, it turned into a bit of a busman's holiday after all.

A complication of recent times is the enormous number of questions on Rohan, his son who is now representing the country in the Commonwealth Games.

"Yes, they ask me, try to a draw me into a comparison, what can I say.."

Did he have a role to play in his son's growth as a cricketer, since he was touring and playing cricket all those years when Rohan was growing? "Even when I was touring, Rohan was with me on so many occasions," Sunny recalls. "He used to be lodged in my room, or in thse of my cricketmates room, like Shivlal Yadav's, and imbibed all that cricket and cricket talks that was going around him," said Sunil.

"But he has worked hard," Sunny adds. "I remember him coming back from nets or matches, bathed in sweat and I could feel the lad was on the right track, there is no doubt he has worked hard to get where he is."

What does he feel about the Commonwealth Games, the debut of cricket? "What reports I have got thus far is that there has been too much of rain and there are rain-affected pitches, it makes run-making difficult," commented Sunil.

And why did he not go to Chennai, honouring the request that he and Kapil Dev help out during the preparatory camp? "I tell you, I kept myself free from between 21st to August 28th, waiting for a call."

Call from whom? From Bobby who had already gone public on his desire to have him there?

Sunil does not say it in as many words but when he comes to explaining the proper behaviour to such invitations, you see his point of view. It is a Board's camp, and he could not go visiting all of his own. There has to be a proper clearance, an invitation from the Board, so that he knows he is needed and welcome at the camp. Just press reports are not enough for him to go visiting.

So there was no invitation from the Board? "I told you, I waited betweeen 21st and 28th," replies Sunil.

What was his experience when he was similalry invited in the past, for instance before the World Cup in 1996, to the Indian camp? "You draw your own conclusions," he shrugs, "but I will let you know how it was. There was no one at the airport to receive me, and when I checked out of the hotel, I paid the bills. It is not the bills, I can afford to pay the hotel's cost, but I don't know if it is proper. As for the camp, Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathore were keen to take batting tips."

While listening to Sunny, one remembers a recent interview published in Rediff, wherein the great all rounder had said that he had gone to the camp on Gaekwad's, and not the Board's, invitation.

We move on to discussing Sir Donald Bradman and his hugely celebrated 90th birthday - a mega media event, as it turned out. With each passing year, the aura around the Don has grown, or has been allowed to grow by the supporting role that the media and organisations have played. But what happens to our own hero? To Sunil Gavaskar, who completed his 50th year this year without a word of nostalgia from anyone?

"I tell you I am not 50 yet," he says. "In India it is customary to say you are 50, when you have finished your 49th year, but the two are different things. As for the nostalgia bit, suggest it to people."

This last is said with a wink and Sunil, impish as ever, departs, ready to resume his work with the ESPN commentary team.