Prakash Padukone is still his one of the best friends and whenever he gets an opportunity, he plays badminton to keep himself fit.

By Kashinath Bhattacharjee

A badminton freak, Sunil Gavaskar is a great tennis fan, too. When Jaidip Mukherjea, the former Davis cupper, invited him to inaugurate the ITF Futures tennis tournament at the Pailan World Schoolin Kolkata's outskirts, Gavaskar agreed to do so on Monday morning, sharp at 9.30 am.

There the two met after so many years. The champions were as cordial as ever. Gavaskar was very happy to see Vece Paes, the Olympic hockey bronze medallist and the father of Leander Paes there, too. “It’s good to talk to sportspersons from other fields. India have so many champions in so many events”, said Sunny.

The students of the Pailan residential tennis and cricket academy were present to greet the original Little Master. The future tennis stars, some of whom must have been aware of Gavaskar’s status, were happy to meet the legend.

Who is his all-time favourite tennis star? Gavaskar was visibly happy to answer it.

“Rod Laver, the great Aussie. You see, when we were growing up, tennis was always a big and glamourous sport. And we use to follow them keenly. So, Laver was a hero always. His contemporary tennis stars, too, had a big impact on us. So were the Indian champions,” Gavaskar said.

Anyone from the current generation?

Gavaskar said, “Yes, I like the way Roger Federer plays. In fact, I am a huge fan of him. And I followed Pete Sampras, too. But Laver was a hero for me and will always be.”

The ITF Futures tournament is being held in Kolkata from March 15 to March 21, where participants from no fewer than 13 countries are taking part. Jaidip was equally happy to have Gavaskar inaugurate the tournament.

“I am really happy that Sunil agreed to inaugurate the tournament. In our residential tennis academy, it is always a great opportunity to interact with the champions from any sphere of life and Sunil is always a great champion,” Jaidip said.

Not only that, when Sunny and Jaidip had played the first friendly point of the tournaments on the hard court of Pailan World School, Jaidip said, “Sunil, you had chosen the wrong sport, you should have been into tennis, I believe!”

It was really a pleasant morning for the future stars of the cricket academy too, who had a lifetime opportunity to interact with a legend. The question-answer session was really interesting since the budding stars, who have never seen the master bat, wanted to know as many things as possible from him.

No wonder that most of the questions were related to the quick fire T20 format. Like, Sachin has reached 200 in one dayers, Yousuf Pathan has slammed a hundred in just 37 balls, cricket has certainly become more attacking, is not it?

Gavaskar said, “Definitely. Cricket has changed a lot. When we were brought up, there was only the longer version of the game and we tried to prepare ourselves thinking about Test cricket only. Nowadays, there are as many as three formats and each format has its pros and cons.

"But, basically, cricket is still the battle between the bat and the ball. The only thing is, this generation of cricketers approaches it with more aggression than we did. And no matter which format of cricket you play, if you are a good technician, your chances of success increases.”

Hard work, dedication, devotion, practice - all these words were flowing from his mouth as Gavaskar was trying to make the little ones understand the importance of working hard.

“Be passionate. No matter what you do in life, in whatever field, it’s your passion towards the job that makes it special. Education is an important factor, too. It provides the sportspersons the ability to analyse himself as well as the opponent. So never neglect studies. It is as important as your sport”, said Gavaskar.

Devang Gandhi, the head coach of the cricket academy and Apurba Saha, the owner and the chairman of the Pailan Group were elated to have Gavaskar at their premises.