Sunil Gavaskar has revealed a couple of exciting anecdotes about Sir Donald Bradman during his recent speech at the Cricket Club of India. Speaking at a function to commemorate the birth centenary of legendary Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, Gavaskar made everyone know about the thirst of knowledge Sir Bradman possessed in him.
He spoke about an incident that took place on the dinner table in Adelaide 1978 when Bradman expressed his willingness to know about Indian political party Shiv Sena. Gavaskar’s revelation was met with surprise and left many people wondering why the Australian legend was interested in Shiv Sena.
He also shared another story, where his 1977-78 team manager Polly Umrigar began conversing in Gujarati with Sir Don Bradman. The moment kick-started a deep discussion between the two former greats about the playing conditions.
Bradman’s curiosity seemed insatiable. In one of the other famous incidents, A journalist based in Kolkata revealed how Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli had caught the eye of Bradman after the record-breaking 664-runs stand during the Harris Shield game.
The legendary cricketer, who has also served as a successful administrator for Cricket Australia, would keenly follow the two Indian prodigies.
According to the journalist, Bradman was totally delighted when he learned that Sachin Tendulkar was rising through the ranks quickly in the cricketing world. He also had Vinod Kambli in his mind and was happy that the left-hander made it to the 1992 World Cup squad.
Bradman, easily the greatest batsman cricketing world has ever seen, later developed a close relation with Sachin Tendulkar and rated him as the best batsman in modern cricket. Tendulkar truly stood too Bradman’s words and pocketed a numerous cricketing record during his career spanning almost two and half decades.
Both the batsmen, in fact, have created records that no one can break, at least in the next couple of decades. Bradman ended his career with a stellar batting average of 99.94. He also had 29 centuries to his name, the highest in the world at the time he retired from the game in 1948. Ironically, this feat was bettered by Sunil Gavaskar.
Later, Tendulkar overtook the record and ended with 51 Test centuries and a staggering 100 centuries overall. He also finished with the most number of runs by any individual in the Test and ODI format apart from another plethora of unachievable records.