Our batting in World Cup finished at three: Sunil Gavaskar

New Delhi, July 29: In my mind's eye there are many Sunil Gavaskar fanboy moments. Lashing out against Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding, hooking and cutting in a ferocious counter punching ex

IANS: Is it true that Imran at the end of the fabulous Bangalore Test when you batted on a bunsen against Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed told you that the time is now to retire and not when people ask you to? It was one of your exceptional innings and you almost won the game for us...

Gavaskar: That's a totally made up story like so many others about me. Fact is during the India tour of England in 1986, Imran and I had lunch where I told him that I was planning to retire at the end of that tour. He said to me that I shouldn't do it as Pakistan was due to tour India the following February. He said his ambition was to beat India in India and it wouldn't be the same if I wasn't in the Indian team then. I told him then that if the Pakistan tour was not announced by the time the England tour ended I would retire at the end of the tour. It was announced within a fortnight so I postponed the retirement. 

IANS: You still played the World Cup after that and scored runs including your only hundred in ODI, was there gas left in the tank?

Gavaskar: Oh yes, there was gas left in the tank but I wasn't enjoying driving the car so it was better to get out then. 

IANS: What happened to Bombay cricket, why did it fall off the cliff? Young callow Maharashtrian boys played for izzat and shaurat, where has that ethos disappeared?

Gavaskar: It's not that Mumbai cricket has gone down, it's just that other states have raised the level of their game which is why Indian cricket is in such a healthy state with its talent pool. 

IANS: Do you think M S Dhoni signalled the true democratisation in Indian cricket as people from obscure towns and smaller cities made the big leap in Indian cricket?

Gavaskar: Have you forgotten India's greatest match winner, Kapil Dev? He was the one who showed that you don't have to come from a metro to be a successful cricketer. Before that there were great players from non-metros too, like Col C.K. Nayudu, Vijay Hazare, Mushtaq Ali to name just three and the regularity of non-metro players started after Kapil showed them how. 

IANS: So much that commentators wrote about your rocky relationship with Kapil, but now both of you praise each other profusely...

Gavaskar: Sadly, Indian cricket is full of stories where it's suited people to try drive a wedge between players. From Col C.K. Nayudu's time it is been the practice. Thanks to the PR guys of current cricketers, any such move is nipped in the bud today. For the record for whatever it is worth Kapil and I have always had a mutually respectful relationship. We were always aware that Indian cricket came before anything else. 

IANS: Tactically were we short of a good batsmen in the middle order in this World Cup and the off day exposed not just that but our tail?

Gavaskar: Our batting this World Cup finished at number 3. If these batsmen didn't get runs as was seen in the semis then we were always going to be in trouble. 

IANS: How is that we ended up playing four wicket keepers if we include Rahul while a whole phalanx of talent sat twiddling its thumbs in India?

Gavaskar: That is a question that only the team management can answer. 

IANS: You once told me about the perfume ball which you could smell even as the leather passed by, these days everyone seems to be bowling at 145-150 clicks, but there is no fear factor? Who was the most dangerous fast bowler you faced? Is it the length that was different or were the wickets livelier...

Gavaskar: The protective equipment today is so good that the batsmen are hardly in physical danger. This is a terrific development as nobody wants to see any serious injury on the field. The best fast bowler I faced was Andy Roberts who had the knack of bowling the unplayable ball even in the 60th over. There was no restrictions on the bouncers then, so the length was generally where you were playing off the back foot most of the time. The pitches especially in England, Australia and New Zealand had a fair amount of grass on them.