In a tribute to his opening partner, Gavaskar recalled one of his most important contributions to Indian cricket.
Sunil Gavaskar paid a heartfelt tribute to his ex opening partner Chetan Chauhan as he departed for a better world after a long battle against complications borne out of the COVID-19 infection on Sunday (August 16).
Gavaskar didn't go about noting down his mate's on-field performances, which are many, but mentioned his off-field exploits for the betterment of his fellow players and Indian cricket as a whole.
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"There’s one thing that few players of my generation and the one immediately after that don’t know is his contribution in getting tax exemptions for them," wrote the batting legend, who opened with Chauhan in 59 Test innings, ten of which were for over 100 runs.
"Both of us first met up with the late Shri R Venkataraman, who was the Finance minister of the country then and requested him to consider a tax exemption for fees received for playing for India."
"In this aspect, must add that it wasn’t just for cricket but for all sportspersons who played for India. We explained how when we were junior cricketers we had to spend a lot of money on equipment, travel, coaches, etc when we had no income at all," he recalled.
The plea made by Gavaskar and Chauhan to the Minister resulted in a breakthrough decision for the players.
"Shri Venkatramanji was most considerate and in a notification he passed a ruling that gave us 75 per cent standard deduction for a Test match fee then an exemption on 50 per cent of the tour fees which we received before leaving for a tour," Gavaskar wrote.
"The cherry on the cake though was the total exemption on the One-day match fees of 750 which we received those days. Mind you we barely played a game or two of one-day international then."
"That notification was in place till about 1998 by which time the number of one-day internationals had increased dramatically as also the fees which were around 1 lakh or so."
"So around the mid-90s players were getting about 25 lakh or more free of tax. Even after my retirement I would give a copy of the notification to the newcomers in the Indian team for them to give to their accountants," he added.
Chauhan, a tenacious right-hand batsman who played 40 Tests and scored 2,084 runs for India, Gavaskar remembers, used to think of this as one of his biggest achievements.
"Chetan always said that if we are asked what was our best contribution to Indian cricket we should say that it was getting the exemptions for the cricketing fraternity."
"His desire to help others manifested in him joining politics and right till the end he was a giver, not a taker."
(With PTI inputs)