MUMBAI: In his glittering and trophy-filled career, Sunil Gavaskar has amassed rich memorabilia for being a distinguished cricketer. He was the premier batter of his generation, becoming the first to scale 10,000 Test runs and held the record for most centuries (34) at the time of his retirement. Interestingly, however, among his vast memorabilia collection, three neckties stand out. They were awarded to him for getting out on the very first ball of the Test match. It has a duck at the centre and “0” printed around it.

The details of that memorabilia came to light at Gavaskar’s 75th birthday celebrations, organised by cricket umpire Marcus Couto and cricket lovers at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

It was one of the quiz questions put across by well-known BCCI umpire Paschim Pathak who, while sharing the answer, said: “As per the tradition of Primary Club of Australia, any batter who gets out on the first ball of the Test match is presented with a necktie by the club for a payment of 10 Australia dollars (which, compulsory for Australians, is optional for foreign players). On the sidelines of a Test match, I had asked Gavaskar about whether he had the three ties. He said he had one. One he had given to charity and one to umpire Marcus Couto.”

Those present for Gavaskar’s birthday function got the chance to see the rare piece of memorabilia and take pictures.

Current Australia captain Pat Cummins is one of ambassadors of the Primary Club, which is a cricket-based charity comprising former and current players. Each time an Australian cricketer scores a golden duck, Primary members are ‘fined’ a $10 tax-deductible donation to their charity which supports people with disability.

Gavaskar was first out off the opening ball of a Test in the third Test of the 1974 series in England at Edgbaston, Birmingham, dismissed caught Alan Knott off Geoffrey Arnold. The second time he earned the dubious distinction was in 1983 at the Eden Gardens when the late West Indies tearaway Malcolm Marshall had him caught behind by Jeffrey Dujon. The third instance came against Imran Khan at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium, caught by Javed Miandad.

Anil Joshi, Gavaskar’s friend and former Nirlon Sports Club teammate, also recounted how Gavaskar’s open letter to a 14-year-old Sachin Tendulkar helped the player overcome the disappointment of being overlooked for the Mumbai Cricket Association (then BCA) Junior Cricketer of the Year award in 1987 despite having scored consistently.

“Out of frustration Tendulkar had stopped playing cricket for a month and his brother Ajit came and met me and the late Hemant Waingankar to find a way to motivate Sachin who was already with Sungrace Mafatlal then,” Joshi said. “Hemant, who was the team’s manager, and I were going to drop Gavaskar at the airport when we discussed the issue with him. He promptly took out his letter head and on the bonnet of the car penned down a letter to Sachin, consoling him by mentioning about another boy who did not win the same award but went on to do not-so-badly in Tests. Of course, Gavaskar was talking about himself. It had the desired impact on Sachin.”

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