Sunil Gavaskar (Indian Cricket Commentator) Biography

Sunil Gavaskar’s full Name is Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. Sunil Gavaskar’s nickname is Sunny or Little Master. Sunil Gavaskar’s birthday is on 10 July 1949. Sunil Gavaskar’s age is 73 years as of 2022.  Sunil Gavaskar’s birthplace is Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Sunil Gavaskar’s zodiac sign is Cancer. Sunil Gavaskar’s height is 1.65m or 5’5. Sunil Gavaskar’s religion is Hinduism. Sunil Gavaskar did right-handed batting. Sunil Gavaskar was an opening batsman.

With a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who had a four-pronged fast bowling assault regarded as the most ruthless in Test history, Sunil Gavaskar was universally recognized for his technique against fast bowling. The majority of Gavaskar’s hundreds against West Indies, meanwhile, came against their backup team when their four-pronged attack wasn’t functioning as a unit. Despite the Indian side winning the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket, his leadership of the team was cited as being less successful.

Sunil Gavaskar Biography

Real Name	Sunil Manohar Gavaskar
Nick Name:	Sunil Gavaskar
Birth Place:	Mumbai, India
Date Of Birth:	10 July, 1949
Age:	74 years old
Height:	In Centimetres – 165 cm In Feet and Inches – 5’5”
Weight:	In Kilograms – 76 kg In Pounds – 168 lbs
Eye Color:	Dark brown
Hair Color:	Black
Parents Name:	Father – Manohar Gavaskar Mother – Meenal Gavaskar
Siblings:	Kavita Viswanath and Nutan Gavaskar
School:	St Xavier’s High School
College:	St Xavier’s College
Religion:	Hinduism
Nationality:	Indian
Zodiac Sign:	Cancer
Gender:	Male
Marital Status:	Married
Wife/Spouse Name:	Marshneill Gavaskar (m. 1974)
Kids/Children Name:	Rohan Gavaskar
Profession:	Cricket Commentator and former cricketer
Net Worth:	$35 million (Rs- 290 Crore INR)

Sunil Gavaskar Net Worth

Name	Sunil Gavaskar
Full Name	Sunil Manohar Gavaskar
Net Worth (2024)	$35 Million
Net Worth In Indian Rupees	290 Crore INR
Profession	Cricketer
Monthly Income	2 Crore +
Yearly Income	25 Crore +

Sunil Gavaskar’s Family

Sunil Gavaskar’s father’s name was Manohar Gavaskar and his mother’s name was Meenal Gavaskar. Sunil Gavaskar has two sisters whose names are Kavita Viswanath and Nutan Gavaskar. At birth, a baby belonging to a fisherman was swapped for Sunil Gavaskar. Since the youngster had a birthmark close to his ear, it was his uncle who realized that he was not Sunil. Sunil was raised in a middle-class household. It was not surprising that he had a fondness for cricket from an early age. His maternal uncle Madhav Mantri was a former Indian Test wicketkeeper, while his father had been a successful club player.

Sunil Gavaskar’s Career

Sunil Gavaskar, who was born in Mumbai to a middle-class Marathi family and attended St. Xavier’s High School, won the 1966 India’s Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award while competing for his school. Before hitting a century against the visiting London schoolboys in his final year of secondary school, he scored 246*, 222, and 85 in school cricket. In 1966–67, he played in his first-ever first-class match for Vazir Sultan Colts XI against an XI from Dungarpur, but he remained a member of Bombay’s Ranji Trophy team for the following two years without taking part in a game. He attended Bombay’s St. Xavier’s College and made his debut against Karnataka in the 1968–1969 season. He made a duck, however, and was the target of mocking claims that his selection was influenced by the fact that his uncle Madhav Mantri, a former Indian Test wicketkeeper, served on the selection committee for Bombay. He followed up by scoring 114 against Rajasthan in his second game, and two more successive centuries led to his selection for the 1970–71 Indian team’s West Indies trip.

Sunil Gavaskar’s Marriage

Marshneil Gavaskar is a native of Kanpur and the daughter of one of the city’s most illustrious leather manufacturers. Marshneil enjoyed watching cricket matches at stadiums with her family and friends, just like every other Indian. The young Marshneil had travelled from Kanpur to Delhi, the capital of the country, for her studies. The young Marshneil made the decision to see the Indian team play a match in Delhi in the year 1973 with her pals from the stands. The small group of Marshneil had gone to the stadium and had the opportunity to collect the autographs of several of the Indian cricket players around lunchtime.

Sunil Gavaskar married Marshneil on 23 September, 1974. After two years, on February 20, 1976, Marshneil gave birth to a baby boy whom they called Rohan Gavaskar, and the couple experienced parenting for the first time. Their son, Rohan, was a cricketer who competed for India in 11 One Day Internationals but was unable to get a berth on the team. In honor of Sunil Gavaskar’s three favourite cricketers—Rohan Kanhai, M. L. Jaisimha, and Rohan’s uncle Gundappa Vishwanath—his father gave Rohan the name Rohan Jaivishwa. Even though Rohan Sunil Gavaskar is the name that is typically recorded. Vivaan, a small boy, and Reya, a stunning girl, are the grandchildren of Sunil and Marshneil Gavaskar today.

Test Debut

Sunil Gavaskar struck 65 and 67 not out in the second Test in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, after missing the first due to a nail infection, scoring the winning runs that handed India its first-ever victory against the West Indies.

Then, in the third test in Georgetown, Guyana, Sunil Gavaskar scored 116 and 64*, and in the fourth test in Bridgetown, Barbados, he scored 1 and 117*. These two innings marked the first 100 for Sunil Gavaskar. He went back to Trinidad for the fifth Test, when his scores of 124 and 220 helped India defeat the West Indies in a series for the first time ever and the only time until 2006.

Captaincy

Despite having a middling track record, Sunil Gavaskar led the Indian team on multiple occasions in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He frequently used conservative strategies that produced lots of draws because he was armed with uninspiring bowling assaults. Sunil Gavaskar became one of the nation’s top pace bowlers during his leadership. With 30 games played in draws, he led India to nine wins, eight losses, and one tie.

A six-match Test series against West Indies was Sunil Gavaskar’s maiden series in command. The numerous great centuries by Gavaskar were in contrast to his numerous failures. He became the first Indian to achieve a double century in India against the West Indies with his 205 in the First Test.

Retirement

India made a tour of Australia in 1985–86. Three tests were drawn in all. Sunil Gavaskar finished the series with 352 runs at 117.33 after scoring an undefeated 166 in the first test in Adelaide and 172 in the third test in Sydney. He managed only 185 runs at 30.83 during a three-Test tour of England, which India won 2-0 despite his underwhelming performance. India had a lengthy schedule of eleven home Test matches in 1986–1987, Gavaskar’s final season playing Test cricket. Gavaskar scored 90 runs in the second innings of the First Test in Madras (now Chennai) against an Australian team, giving India a chance to meet the objective of 348 runs. The match ended in a tie. He finished the series with 205 runs at 51.66 after scoring 103 in the third test. 

Sunil Gavaskar’s Books

Including his own autobiography, Sunny Days: An Autobiography, published in 1976, Gavaskar also penned four books on cricket. His other publications are-

• Idols from 1983
• Runs ‘n Ruins from 1984
• One Day Wonders from 1986.

Also Read Virat Kohli Biography!

Sunil Gavaskar’s Records

• The first cricketer to reach 10,000 runs in a Test match was Sunil Gavaskar. During the Test match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad on March 7, 1987, the noteworthy milestone was attained. In test cricket, he scored 10,122 runs on this particular day.
• Sunil Gavaskar amassed 34 centuries during 125 Test games. Later, in 2005, the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, smashed the record.
• Sunil Gavaskar got 13 hundreds in the 27 games he played against West Indies.
• The only cricketer to score 774 runs in a series against the West Indies is Sunil Gavaskar.
• In the Faisalabad Test against Pakistan, Sunil Gavaskar was the first Indian to bat continuously. In that inning, he had ran up 127* runs.
• Only one other batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, has ever scored more than 1,000 runs in a single year on four separate occasions.
• Only Sunil Gavaskar has more consecutive hundreds on two cricket fields than any other batsman in history. Both in Port of Spain and Wankhede Stadium, he scored four straight hundreds.
• Sunil Gavaskar was the first Indian fielder to accumulate a century of catches in a Test match, excluding the wicket keepers. He has 108 catches to his name during the course of his Test career.
• Over the course of nearly 12 years, Sunil Gavaskar participated in 106 straight Test matches and remained an essential part of Team India.
• The only Indian with three centuries in a single Test was Sunil Gavaskar.
• The fastest Indian to accumulate 5000 Test runs is Sunil Gavaskar.
• The only cricketer with 58 Test century partnerships with 18 different players is Sunil Gavaskar.
• Along with Australia’s Ricky Ponting and David Warner, Sunil Gavaskar holds the record for most hundreds in both innings in a Test Match, three in a row.
• Sunil Gavaskar was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 1980.

Sunil Gavaskar’s Awards and Honours

• 1980: Former Indian President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy presented Sunil Gavaskar with the Padma Bhushan honour.
• 1994: Former governor P. C. Alexander and former chief minister Sharad Pawar were present as Sunil Gavaskar took the oath of office to begin his honorary one-year term as Bombay Sheriff at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai.
• 1996:  Establishment of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in his honour. Any bilateral Test series between India and Australia will now be referred to as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in honour of legendary athletes Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar.
• In his honour.
• 2003: Sunil Gavaskar was the first and only Indian to present an MCC Spirit Of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture.  In the Cowdrey Lecture’s history, he was the third speaker.
• 2012: Gavaskar received the Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award from BCCI during the BCCI Annual Awards Function for 2011–12. Gavaskar received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the then-BCCI president N. Srinivasan, who also presented him with a certificate, trophy, and a check for $2,500,000.
• 2017: Sunil Gavaskar officially opened a cricket field in Louisville, Kentucky, making it the first international sporting complex to bear an Indian athlete’s name. The Louisville Cricket Club, a member of the 42-team MidWest Cricket League, calls the Sunil M. Gavaskar Cricket Field its home field. Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, handed the keys to the stadium over to Gavaskar.

Controversies

Shane Warne

Shane Warne is not the best spinner, according to Sunil Gavaskar. Now, the opinion itself is not incorrect because he has a right to it. However, saying it so soon after the Australian cricketer passed away was the worst possible timing. To make matters worse, he made absolutely inappropriate remarks about Warne’s lifestyle. Later, Gavaskar apologised for his remarks and said that the issue shouldn’t have been asked in the first place.

Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma

Sunil Gavaskar, who was in the commentary box, said that he had only rehearsed Anushka Sharma’s bowling during the lockdown, suggesting that was the cause of Virat Kohli’s errors when he dropped two catches in games against KXIP in IPL 2021. That was obviously inappropriate, and Anushka responded to his comments in an Instagram story. He received harsh criticism for his offensive remark.

Sunil Gavaskar Interesting Facts

• Sunil Gavaskar once dreamed of being a wrestler since he was a big fan of Maruti Vadar.
• Milind Rege, Sunil Gavaskar’s closest friend, once said that Sunil Gavaskar can be seen in a corner of the well-known song Dum Maro Dum.
• Sunil Gavaskar was voted India’s top schoolboy cricketer of the year in 1996 while still in school.
• Madhav Mantri, Sunil Gavaskar’s uncle, was a former Indian Test wicket-keeper.
• Sunil Gavaskar’s full name is Sunil Manohar Gavaskar.
• Sunil Gavaskar’s nicknames are Sunny and LIttle Master.
• Sunil Gavaskar was swapped with a fisherman’s baby when he was little.
• Rohan Kanhai was Sunil Gavaskar’s idol.
• Sunil Gavaskar’s uncle was also a cricketer.
• Sunil Gavaskar’s first runs were leg byes.
• Umpire, Dickie Bird, gave Sunil Gavaskar a haircut because his hair was getting in his eyes while playing the match.
• The main character in the Marathi film Savli Premachi was played by Sunil Gavaskar.
• Sunil Gavaskar has previous experience working as a match official.
• Sunil Gavaskar has scored 34 centuries in his career.
• Gavaskar performed the lead part in the Marathi film Savli Premachi. He also made an appearance in the Hindi film Maalamal.
• Sunil Gavaskar provided the vocals for Shantaram Nandgaonkar’s well-known Marathi song Yaduniye madhye thambaila vel konala.
• Sunil Gavaskar missed the opportunity to meet his newborn son, Rohan, till he was two months old since Gavaskar was hurt in the third and final test against New Zealand in February 1976.
• Sunil Gavaskar was chosen to serve as Mumbai’s sheriff in 1994.
• Sunil Gavaskar’s skill at mimicking made him well-known among his teammates.
• Sunil Gavaskar established the Champ Foundation to give disadvantaged athletes financial support.
• Sunil Gavaskar and actor Nagarjuna shared ownership of the Mumbai team in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) in 2013.
• In his career, Sunil Gavaskar was bowled out three times after the first delivery of a Test match.
• When Sunil Gavaskar got 36 runs out of 174 balls in a World Cup match against England in 1975, he became known as the game’s slowest run scorer (just one four).
• In honour of Sunil Gavaskar and his co-winner, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was established.
• Sunil Gavaskar has written four books about cricket: Idols, Runs n’ Ruins, and One Day Wonders and Sunny Days which is an autobiography.

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