Sunil Gavaskar

He married Marshneill Mehrotra, daughter of a leather industrialist. His son Rohan too is a former cricketer, although he was not as successful as his father..

Sunil was born in a middle-class family to Manohar Gavaskar and Meenal. He loved cricket from a young age and it was no surprise. His father had been a good club player and his maternal uncle, Madhav Mantri had been a former Indian Test wicketkeeper.

He went to St. Xavier’s school as it was well known for its cricketing traditions. He played a lot of cricket during his school years and was named India’s Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the year in 1966. He made his first class debut in 1966-67 playing for Vazir Sultan Colts XI.

A successful first class career ensured that he secured a place in the 1970-71 Indian team to tour the West Indies. In the five match series, he had to miss the first one due to an injury. But he more than made up for that by scoring a mammoth 774 runs in the next four matches and helped India win the series.

His spectacular debut made the cricketing fans in India hail him as a national hero. The pressure mounted on his young shoulders and he could not perform well in the England tour that followed.

On a tour of West Indies in 1975-76 he scored back-to-back centuries making 156 and 102 runs in the second and third tests respectively. His century in the third test played a crucial role in India’s win.

He toured Australia in 1977-78 and had a blast there! He was in top form and scored three consecutive Test centuries in the first three tests. However, his performance went in vain as India lost the series.

India and Pakistan had always been arch cricket rivals and the pressure was high when India toured Pakistan in 1978-79. Gavaskar played well but could not score centuries in the first two tests. However, he scored two centuries, one each in the each innings of the third test.

He became the first player to score 10000 runs in Test Cricket

He broke Sir Don Bradman’s record of 29 Test centuries and at one time held the world record for the highest Test centuries and the highest number of Test runs. His Test record is: Matches – 122, Runs Scored – 10122, Batting Average – 51.12, 100s/50s – 34/45.His ODI record is: Marches – 108, Runs Scored – 3092, Batting Average – 35.13, 100s/50s – 1/27.

The Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan in 1980 in recognition of his contributions to the world of cricket.

He was awarded the prestigious Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.