Rohan Gavaskar Recalls Sunil Gavaskar’s Courage During Mumbai Riots In 1993
Dec 12, 2016 at 5:24 PM
Former Indian batting legend and cricket expert Sunil Gavaskar, who toyed with the Caribbean bowlers during his debut international series, had shown some ‘courage’ back home to save a family during the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993.
The valiant individual, Gavaskar was felicitated with the Golden Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai before his son Rohan Gavaskar, former India batsman and left-arm spinner, recalled the harrowing incident.
“Another one of his characteristics is courage. I got to say there was an incident in 1993 after the bomb blasts, which left a real impact on me. We were standing on our terrace, right after the bomb blasts a few days later, when we saw a hate mob, and they had cornered a family,” Rohan Gavaskar recalled quoted as saying by PTI.
During the function, the 67-year-old Gavaskar was awarded a silver platter memorabilia, which includes the citation of his well-earned 34 centuries in 125 Tests by former Indian skipper Ajit Wadekar and opener Madhav Apte.
“We knew they did not have any good intentions towards the family and dad saw that, ran down and confronted the hate mob,” Rohan added.
Cricketer-turned-commentator Rohan was the strong contender in first-class cricket to get picked for the national side, but he couldn’t become that famous like his father whether being in his prime form or being branded for rock-solid technique.
“He told the mob, whatever you are going to do that family, you are going to do to me first and then better sense prevailed and the family was allowed to go on its way,” Rohan further added.
“It takes a special kind of courage to put your life at risk and confront the hate mob and I guess, it takes special kind of courage to sort of face the kind of bowlers which he did in his career without a helmet. People called it courage, someone may call insanity, but in my mind it needs a special courage to do that.”
On the same occasion, Gavaskar, who is known for his witty remarks, enthralled the audience during the event when he narrated that legendary Sir Gary Sobers used to score century after century after touching him for his sheer luck. The incident took place during Gavaskar’s maiden Test series in 1971 under the tutelage of Ajit Wadekar in West Indies.