Sunny gives it back

 

 

To be frank, I never expected it from my captain and partner Sunil Gavaskar at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. We played together for more than a decade and I'd never seen that kind of retaliation by Sunny when he was batting. On the third test match, day four, in second innings, Sunny and I managed 165 runs unbroken for the first wicket. For the first time in the series, Sunny was having a wonderful outing in the pitch and so was I. Suddenly, an incoming delivery by Dennis Lillee came low; the ball kissed Sunny's bat and hit his pad. Before Lille could appeal, Sunny indicated with his bat that the ball had taken a thick edge. But the umpire declared him out. Bewildered, Sunny asked him what’s going on? At the same moment, Lillee rushed to the batting crease and he touched Sunny’s left pad and showed where the ball hit. As Sunny started walking towards the pavilion, Lillee uttered something. Sunny became furious and came back and told me that ‘these people are cheats’ and pushed me towards the pavilion. He started walking very fast and I deliberately walked slowly. I was almost 20 yards behind him. At that moment, I saw Vengsarkar coming down. So I stayed in and the match continued with that honest protest. Though there was a hue and cry about that protest, the amazing thing is we won that test match and squared the series. On the other hand, that protest showed the cricketing world that Indians are not just takers, they can also give back when the time demands it. With that protest, Sunny lifted the Indian spirit in the cricketing world. (1981); Chetan Chauhan, former Indian Opener, Vice President, Delhi District Cricket Association