Sunil Gavaskar’s name is always heard with pride whenever Indian cricket comes into the conversation. The great opener still looms large through his incisive cricketing opinions and comments, triggering nostalgia among the fans oftentimes. Unlike past generations, the current players hardly look up to Gavaskar for his advice. Greats such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, and Virender Sehwag have all attributed Gavaskar’s counsel for reviving their careers when times were tough. Nevertheless, with the proliferation of IPL culture and overdependence on special coaches and commentators, the current crop of players prefer to go it alone, omitting legends such as Gavaskar in the process.
Indian Test legend and former India pacer’s teammate, Karsan Ghavri, is also disappointed with this trend. He feels it’s a lost opportunity, particularly when cricketers from other countries still regard Gavaskar in awe and regularly look up to him for advice.
Ghavri also talked about the reported tension between Gavaskar and veteran players such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Gavaskar had earlier been reported to have upset Rohit with his commentary during India’s tour of Australia, and Kohli, too, was reportedly offended by Gavaskar’s words about his strike rate during IPL. Ghavri is of the view that such reactions are unnecessary and maintains that Gavaskar’s criticism is based on a lot of insight and needs to be accepted, not envied.
“Gavaskar has been doing commentary for the last 25 years. His comments are so precious to any young player. It’s very unfortunate that our own players don’t go to him for any advice. Even players from outside go to him. Every Indian batter should go to him, including Shubman Gill. I don’t know whether he’s gone to him or not, but if he hasn’t, he should. Somewhere, it would have come in the media – that Sunil Gavaskar has advised Virat Kohli, or Rohit Sharma or Shubman Gill something – but we never got to hear any such thing,” Ghavri said on the Vickey Lalwani Show.
“It is nonsense. You may be Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli. They must respect the great man. Because if he tells you something or is advising you on something, that is for their own good. Ravi Shastri is an open-hearted guy. When it comes to criticising somebody, he will do it, but Sunil does it in a very different manner. He is known for saying things totally different to Ravi Shastri,” he pointed out.
