WE would never have expected this from the otherwise unemotional and buttoned-up Sunil Gavaskar. But apparently excited by Sachin Tendulkar’s double hundred on February 24 in the Gwalior ODI against South Africa, he went on national television and expressed the desire to touch the master blaster’s feet!
This, though a time-honoured Indian custom, is not the respectful gesture a senior gentry ought to be making to a much younger man. Well, Gavaskar’s 61, that makes him a senior citizen, doesn’t it? We suspect Tendulkar dodged Gavaskar after that, because the two were destined to meet only a month later last Sunday at the D Y Patil Stadium where Mumbai played Hyderabad and Harbhajan distinguished himself. At the crease for the toss, unmindful of the television cameras, Gavaskar attempted a dive for Tendulkar’s feet.
But Gavaskar is not the athletic batsman anymore whose wristy strokes and twinkling feet endeared him to the Indian cricket fan before Tendulkar came along. Age has stiffened his back, time has dulled the reflexes, and a wary Tendulkar was easily able to stop him halfway down. “Nako, nako,” cried a distressed Tendlya obviously uncomfortable by what Gavaskar was doing. It ended there, of course, without neither batsman facing any embarrassment, but Gavaskar later said, “He is such a lovable chap.”
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