Sunil Gavaskar: Cricket’s Little Master by Debasish Datta is a glorious tribute to the original Little Master.

By Rajarshi Gupta

It all began in 1978 when, Datta, then a young college student in Kolkata went to the Eden Gardens and watched in awe as blooming straight drives kept everyone in the vicinity stunned.

Datta realised why they were making so much of the little man from Mumbai. All of seven years old in international cricket, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was set to be an institution in world cricket for generations to come.

“I was like any regular college student in Kolkata and had just gone to the Eden as a spectator,” Datta recalls.

The ball kept landing beside me and I picked it up and threw it to the net bowlers. Sunil later came and thanked me for the ‘help’ and asked me what I did.”

That very year the two met again and started on a friendship that has stood the test of time over three decades. Datta and Gavaskar have since captured the imagination of cricket fanatics round the globe in their own ways.

While Sunny stunned the best of bowling attacks with his prowess with the bat, Datta let his pen do all the talking and the respect, as many in the fraternity know, has been mutual.

31 years later, Datta knew how to thank his friend and mentor. Published by Niyogi Books, "Sunil Gavaskar: Cricket’s Little Master" is its worth weight in gold. It is more a “bouquet”, as the author, one of the most well-known cricket journalists in the country, puts it.

It is magic from the onset as former England batsman Geoffery Boycott pens down an honest and candid foreword to one of his most well-respected contemporaries.

From Sourav Ganguly to Sachin Tendlukar, from Ravi Shastri to Milind Rege, from Duleep Mendis to Arjuna Ranatunga, from Clive Llyod to Hanif Mohammad, the stars of the game have been generous with their outpourings on of the most through gentlemen to have ever played the game.

The book will strike an instant chord with the readers, not just for the names who have contributed but because of the sheer honesty.

Datta should be proud of such an effort. This is perhaps for the first time when someone has gone into such intricate details on one of India’s greatest heroes.

However, the revered journalist thinks the book should have come up ages back.

“I should have published this book much earlier and I think it has been a failure on my part to keep it waiting for so long,” Datta said.

“I am grateful to Vikas Niyogi (of Niyogi Books) for readily agreeing to do an expensive book.

“In fact, I was humbled when Sunil’s parents told me that such a book has never been written on their son. That was my greatest reward,” Datta said of the book, which will hit the stands on Monday.

The book, if it may be added, is worth every penny. Rare images trace back all facets of a career that has made Gavaskar a household name and as Ganguly puts it in his write-up, “the last word in Indian cricket.”

The book is just not a mere narration, studded with honest observations of an honest man but a reflection of Gavaskar as the best opening batsman of the era, as a doting father, a true leader of men, an expert commentator and a benchmark for greatness and humilty.