India batting great Sunil Gavaskar recalled a funny incident involving the fastest bowler that he has ever faced in his life- Australia’s Jeff Thomson.
Gavaskar in his 16-year international career faced some of the best and fastest bowlers of his time like Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, and Michael Holding, and the Australian duo of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee. Among these, Gavaskar called Thomson the quickest bowler he has ever faced in his life.
He further recalled an incident involving Thomson and his former opening partner Chetan Chauhan during a Test match in Sydney.
"The quickest was Jeff Thomson. In Sydney, Australia had won the toss and batted and we dismissed them for 140 or something. Here, Tommo was in his whites even before tea. And it had just started to drizzle. Man, he was something. He was not happy about bowling at that stage,” said Gavaskar during a show on SuperSport Cricket.
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"My opening partner Chetan Chauhan used to play this slash, that used to send the ball racing. And the team was teasing him about it. So he played that shot off Tommo and it went off the top edge, once ball into the boundary for four. In Sydney, the visitors' change room is closer to the action than the home team change room so when that boundary was hit, everyone got up and shouted 'Master'. We all could hear it. Chetan, recognizing that these guys are making fun, started to shake his head and laugh. But as he laugh, he made eye contact with Tommo in his follow-through," added Gavaskar.
Turns out the legendary Australian quick had misread the gesture from the Indian batter and thought it was directed at him.
"Tommo thought that he was laughing at him. So we went across and marked a cross on Chetan's helmet. He said, 'I am going to hit you there and then see if you laugh'. Chetan said 'you do what you want'. And I am from the non-striker's end and trying to tell him, 'Chetan, leave it.' I am speaking to him in Marathi and he tells me, I am a Rajput'. I don't take a backward step'. And after that, he was bowling like the wind. Everything was flying around. Unbelievable. That was the fastest spell I have faced,” Gavaskar said.
