Ritesh Misra, Surat, 12 December 2024
Anshuman Gaekwad is universally acknowledged as one of the bravest cricketers who ever played the lovely game. He played 40 test matches for team India out of which 22 were versus the fearsome West Indies at a time when they had an unending assembly line of all time great fast bowlers. His father Dattajirao Gaekwad played Test cricket while his son Shatrunjay has played first class cricket.
Anshuman Sir (referred to as Anshuman for the purpose of this article) opened with Sunny Gavaskar in 29 Tests. The original little master has always said that Charlie, Jimmy, and Ekki were the three bravest cricketers he had played with. Charlie is the name by which cricketers called Anshuman while Jimmy of course is Mohinder Amarnath and Ekki is Eknath Solkar.
Being such a brave cricketer, his book is appropriately named “Guts Amidst Bloodbath: The Anshuman Gaekwad Narrative”. The book was released in a glittering ceremony graced by several megastars like Gavaskar, Kapil, G.R. Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Karsan Ghavri, Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Zaheer Khan. So many top cricketers of different generations coming together shows how popular Anshuman was. The book was written by Aditya Bhushan and edited by Sachin Bajaj.
This brave cricketer had an unnerving debut which was in the third test of the 1974 test series versus West Indies. Captain Tiger Pataudi deflected a lifting ball to his chin and then to the stumps. There was actual blood on the pitch when Anshuman came out to join Vishwanath. He adjusted himself well and, thereafter, was promoted to the opening slot. He had two hundreds – one versus West Indies in the 1979 Kanpur Test and a 200 vs Pakistan at Jalandhar, in which he batted for 671 minutes, an innings which is often quoted as an example of discipline and patience and which made him India’s great wall, well before Dravid and Pujara. Since his first captain was Tiger Pataudi, he had special respect for him. An example of the same is that he enjoyed smoking but never did so in presence of Tiger (Source – Vijay Lokapally).
Can you guess what was the biggest test of bravery for Anshuman? It was breaking the news to Sachin Tendulkar that his father had passed away. This was during the 1999 World Cup when he was the coach. He was also the coach for the Test series, which India won 2-1 versus Mark Taylor’s Australian team. He was the coach in two unique and memorable achievements by Indian cricketers, which will be remembered by fans for long. The first being Anil Kumble’s 10 wickets in an innings versus Pakistan, which helped India level the series 1-1 and the second being the two blistering tons by Tendulkar at Sharjah, famously known as the ‘desert storm’. He was also the Head Coach when India reached the 2000 ICC Final, a series where we saw the unique talent of Yuvraj for the first time.
When the match fixing scandal came out he was the Head Coach and handled the situation in a very mature manner. As a senior he loved all. He himself was very fond of wristwatches and two of his favourite wristwatches were presented to him by Sachin and Azhar, which he did not wear but kept in his drawing room. He was a cricketer who was involved with the game well after retirement. He was secretary Baroda Cricket Association. He was a senior National selector for 4 years. For his achievements, he was awarded the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. The very next year, when the Indian Cricketers’ Association was formed he became its President. He was also part of the Apex Council of BCCI.
He was a first class giant with 12000 runs and 34 tons. He had a ton in his last first class match. Fast bowler and coach Balwinder Sandhu once said in Midday, “In West Zone team meeting for the CAB cricket tournament in 1981 he would declare, ‘I will score a hundred tomorrow’, and he did it 4 times versus 4 teams.” This is a tribute to his confidence and self-belief.
When asked what is his advice to budding cricketers, Anshuman said that one should never sledge/provoke a fast bowler. He says once he did that to Mike Holding and the next ball hit his ear, and he had to retire hurt at 81 not out. His eardrum was punctured and he needed an operation. Gundappa Vishwanath says that no one expected him to play test cricket after that but, well, Bravery is his second name and he did!
Interestingly Mike Holding was one of his closest friends and when this brave opening batter moved on, in an interview to noted Journalist Clayton Murzello, Holding said that he would miss having a meal with Anshuman in London, enjoying each other’s company. He also said that they never missed sending Diwali and Christmas greetings to each other.
Anshuman Sir, you are one of our bravest cricketers ever. You are an amazing Icon of India.
