Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has recently recalled an instance from his India debut on a Test tour of West Indies in 1971 when he was so overwhelmed by the behavior of great West Indian Rohan Kanhai, who was one of the players in the opposition side during the series.
Recalling a few words of 1975 World Cup winner Kanhai on a recent episode of Gaurav Kapur’s show 22 Yarns, former Indian captain revealed how the West Indian great “secretly encouraged” him instead of sledging or swearing when he played a reckless shot during his debut Test series despite being opposition player.
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The legendary batsman further revealed that Kanhai had asked him to concentrate and score a hundred against his team in a low voice so that his teammates don't hear anything and that’s highly impressed by the commentator and find it ‘unbelievable’ till date.
Gavaskar said on the show, “In my debut series if I played a bad shot when crossing over me to go to the slips for the next over if he was not within earshot of the wicketkeeper, he would whisper in my ear: ‘Concentrate! Don’t you want a 100? What’s the matter with you? He’s in the opposition, he’s not swearing at me, he actually wants me to get a 100. Unbelievable!”
Meanwhile, the former captain famously went on to slam three centuries and a double in his first-ever series for India and alter Gavaskar and Kanhai went on to become great pals.
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Even Gavaskar also named his son Rohan after West Indian great, explaining the reason he said he was so much blown away by the humble, so astonishing kindness and simple nature of Kanhai.
The former captain further added, “Apart from his batsmanship, (why I respected Rohan Kanhai so much was because of) how he secretly encouraged me. There’s always been this issue between African-origin people and Indian-origin people in Trinidad, Guyana. Off the field, he (Kanhai) was one of the nicest guys I ever met. Naming my son after him was a no-brainer.”
Noteworthy, Gavaskar’s son Rohan, born in 1976, is also a former India cricketer as he played 11 ODIs for in the early 2000s and now he is a cricket commentator.
(With India Today Inputs)
