Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar is hailed as one of the greatest cricketers to have ever played the game for India. He was the first-ever batsman to score 10000 Test runs. Sunil Gavaskar took retirement from his cricketing career in 1987.
While is often seen doing commentary during the live matches and is known for speaking straight from his shoulder, however, he would probably go down as the best coach which Indian cricket ever had.
The Indian cricket team went from one coach to another in the 1900s, including the likes of Bishan Bedi, Ajit Wadekar, Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal, Anshuman Gaikwad, Kapil Dev, and others. However, Sunil Gavaskar was never inclined towards coaching. He never volunteered to take up the role.
Recently, talking on ‘The Analyst’ YouTube channel, in response to a query, the Little Master explained why he would never have been a good fit as a coach. He revealed:
“I’ve been a terrible watcher of cricket, even when I was playing the game. If I got out, I would be watching the match very intermittently. I would watch for a while, then go inside the change room or read something or reply to letters etc. and then come out and watch again. So, I wasn’t the ball-by-ball watcher, like say GR Vishwanath is. GRV or my uncle Madhav Mantri was a complete ball by ball watcher. And if you want to be a coach or a selector, you’ve got to be a ball-by-ball watcher. And therefore, I never even thought about it… being a coach,”
It was in 2004, Gavaskar took up the responsibility of consultant during India’s home series against Australia. This was the closest Gavaskar had come closest to coaching the senior national cricket team. However, because Gavaskar not taking up the job of the coaching, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t available to give his important inputs in whatever way he could. He said:
“Having said that, I’ve had people coming up to me. Not the current lot, but say Sachin, Rahul Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag and Laxman. So I’ve been very happy to exchange notes with them… whatever my observations are. So yes, I’ve been able to maybe help them somewhere down the line, but on a full-time basis, that’s not something I could do,”
