When Sunil Gavaskar was pelted with fruits, refused to play at Eden Gardens

[EnterTheVoid]

With India having failed to win for 29 successive Tests, Kapil was sacked as captain and Gavaskar resumed leadership at the start of the 1984–85 season. The two Test tour of Pakistan resulted in two further draws, with Gavaskar compiling 120 runs at 40. The First Test against England in Bombay saw India break through for its first Test victory in 32 matches. It proved to be a false dawn, with England squaring the series 1–1 in Delhi before another controversial Third Test at Eden Gardens in Calcutta. The hostile crowd watched as India batted for over two days to reach 7/437 after 203 overs. Angry with the slow pace of India’s innings, the crowd chanted “Gavaskar down! Gavaskar out!†blaming him for India’ performance. The local police chief reportedly asked Gavaskar to declare to placate the angry crowd. When Gavaskar led his team onto the field, he was pelted with fruit. Gavaskar vowed never to play at Eden Gardens again, and duly withdrew from the team for India’s next fixture at the Bengali capital two years later, ending his record of 106 consecutive Tests

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunil_Gavaskar He was also booed on his home ground in the semi final of the '87 WC when he made four Anyone who saw the match elaborate on these two incidents ?

[Gunner_Mania]

I don't know about beein booed at his home ground, but rumour had it back then that since the World Cup final was at the Eden Gardens, he got out cheaply. Don't know the truth behind it

[EnterTheVoid]

I don't know about beein booed at his home ground' date= but rumour had it back then that since the World Cup final was at the Eden Gardens, he got out cheaply. Don't know the truth behind ithttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW3GyWmHGco]YouTube - Forgettable moments of Sunil Gavaskar's rich career[/ame]

According to this, he was booed at his home ground (Later half of video) [ame=

[zen]

I remember Gavaskar's dismisal in that SF (Don't remember where I watched it). The ball from Deferatus (hope the spelling is right) was a straight one and he miseed it. If you looked at that in slow motion, the ball appeard to be going on to hit his bat but at the last moment, he took his bat out (or at least appeared to be that way to me) Can't say if he got out delibrately. But that dismissal didn't appear straight forward to me :P

[EnterTheVoid]

About him being booed;

Another legend from Mumbai, Sunil Gavaskar, too had been booed off the field by the Wankhede crowd in his last international innings against England in the 1987 World Cup semi-final after he fell cheaply to England swing bowler Philip Defreitas.

Link: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/tendulkar-booed-out-at-homeground/7009-5.html

[The Outsider]

Calcutta booing was mainly because Kapil was dropped for the test match, purportedly at Gavaskar's insistence, after an 'irresponsible' shot he played at Delhi to get out. It was the only time Kapil missed a test match in his career and ironically had scored the same number of runs in the Delhi test as Gavaskar over both innings ie. 67. Wankhede booing was a classless display from the crowd.

[Deleted_User_1]

The thing that incensed him more was that crap was thrown at his wife Marshneil at Eden Gardens. The bengali crowd was more partial to Kapil than Sunny.

[ludhianvi]

Apart from the Kapil ommision, part of it may also be attributed to the fact that in the first innings of the Test match, India was still batting on the fourth day. Even after both Azharuddin (who was making his debut btw), and Ravi Shastri had hit their centuries and were back in the pavilion, Gavakar, who was the captain, took the decision to keep on batting in the lunch session of the 4th day with India at 417 for 7. The pace of the batsmen at the crease didnt help the cause either. India was going at a rate of ~2 rpo. So no wonder the crowd was a tad bit angry :cantstop:

[riwi999]

I don't know about beein booed at his home ground' date=' but rumour had it back then that since the World Cup final was at the Eden Gardens, he got out cheaply. Don't know the truth behind it[/quote'] That is rubbish! Clearly people who spread this rumour are out to malign the little master. Gavaskar had ego no doubt but no way would he place himself above India. Certainly not in the semi-final of a World Cup, that too with Pakistan already eliminated. If he did not want to play at the Eden, he could have dropped himself for the final. That Defreitas dismissal was caused by the following IMO: - firstly, it was a very good delivery. Let's give credit to the bowler. - Gavaskar was in the ODI form of his life. This was the f a g-end of his career but, for the first time in his career, he had just got an ODI hundred in the previous game. It was a wonderful, free-stroking innings (SR117, with 3 sixes). Unheard of, for Sunny. He must have fancied himself to continue that form. - England had scored at over 5 an over, so there was pressure on India. You can argue that he could have first settled down and then gone for it but if he had failed after settling down, the task would have been even more daunting. He felt luck was his way in the tournament, he was getting runs quickly - it was just that his luck ran out and he got a good delivery from Defreitas. There were shades to Gavaskar's character that I was also not particularly fond of (so I am not a blind fan of his) but this particular rumour is just rubbish IMO.

[Sir john]

i read this one few year back in cricket samrat i think.

[riwi999]

And that allegation that he batted slowly in the World Cup opener of 1975 as a protest against Venkat being appointed captain is another load of rubbish. As he himself said later in the interview (and has always maintained), those were very early days for limited-overs cricket. Gavaskar was the quintessential Test opener, compact in defence, seeing off the new ball, eschewing every risk, being technically correct and all that. That was the mindset with which he approached every innings of his. Yes, he should have realised the urgency of scoring that limited-overs brings. But again, when all your life you've been mentally tuned to a certain type of style, when you are now playing a World Cup match, you feel all the more responsible to not lose your wicket. I know of no batsman who put a greater price on his wicket and the bigger the occasion, the more determined Sunny was to just NOT get out. Yes, it was disastrous in the context of the game. And he became very unpopular with the crowd at that time. And newspapers were shocked too. He has himself accepted that it was a very forgettable match in his cricketing career. But to say that he did this as protest against Venkat's captaincy? Another load of rubbish. Am not saying there were no captaincy issues. Am not saying there were either. I refuse to speculate on this. Am just saying that for THIS particular match, bringing Venkat's captaincy as a reason for Gavaskar's defensive batting is nothing but a conspiracy theory that does not recognise the fundamental mindset of Sunny Gavaskar, the opener.

[anbuchelvan]

That is rubbish! Clearly people who spread this rumour are out to malign the little master. Gavaskar had ego no doubt but no way would he place himself above India. Certainly not in the semi-final of a World Cup, that too with Pakistan already eliminated. If he did not want to play at the Eden, he could have dropped himself for the final. That Defreitas dismissal was caused by the following IMO: - firstly, it was a very good delivery. Let's give credit to the bowler. - Gavaskar was in the ODI form of his life. This was the f a g-end of his career but, for the first time in his career, he had just got an ODI hundred in the previous game. It was a wonderful, free-stroking innings (SR117, with 3 sixes). Unheard of, for Sunny. He must have fancied himself to continue that form. - England had scored at over 5 an over, so there was pressure on India. You can argue that he could have first settled down and then gone for it but if he had failed after settling down, the task would have been even more daunting. He felt luck was his way in the tournament, he was getting runs quickly - it was just that his luck ran out and he got a good delivery from Defreitas. There were shades to Gavaskar's character that I was also not particularly fond of (so I am not a blind fan of his) but this particular rumour is just rubbish IMO.

You are right.Gavaskar always put the country above every thing ,true Maharashtrian,Unlike the traiter Sanjay Manjrekar who is happy to lick Ian and greg chappel's shoes .Gavaskar always stood for India ,Indians and his team mates.

[ina_jawaan]

This is a complete red herring because the wikipedia article does not mention the main reason Gavaskar was booed. During the preceding Delhi test match, Kapil Dev was out caught in the outfield and India lost the match. Gavaskar decided to blame Kapil and dropped him from the Calcutta test match. That is why the passionate but volatile Eden Gardens crowd booed him. And he was lucky not be lynched like the selector Anthony de Mello almost was when he dropped the champion entertainer Mushtaq Ali in the fifties. The Eden Gardens crowd knows a thing or two about cricket - they knew de Mello was an idiot for dropping Mushtaq and they knew Gavaskar was scapegoating the greatest all rounder India has ever produced. Who can blame them? Gavaskar never played in Eden Gardens again - and people in Calcutta did not care to see him play.