Gavaskar reveals Australia walkoff secret, Shakoor Rana spat and the day he sat out laps ‘in spirit’

The trigger, he said, was a single word Kirmani had used the previous day. When a stumping appeal against Border was referred to the square leg umpire, Kirmani had threatened to walk off himself if given not out. His reasoning was unambiguous.

“It’s not about a decision,” Kirmani had told Gavaskar. “If this is given not out, my integrity is questioned that I did some mischief. I’m going to walk off.”

The appeal was upheld. But the word stayed with Gavaskar.

“That bloody word walkoff stuck in my head,” he said. “So the next day when this happened, there’s my chance. I keep telling Kirmani — because of you I got into trouble.”
Border, who was at the crease that day, confirmed the decision against Gavaskar was debatable. “It was a bit of a dodgy decision, I have to admit,” he said.

The Rana Spat

Gavaskar recalled a tour of Pakistan where bowler Mo Ramanat was warned for running on the danger area in the second innings, despite Pakistani bowlers going unpunished for the same offence throughout the match. When Gavaskar confronted Rana, the umpire snapped back.

“He said, you don’t tell me what to do,” Gavaskar recounted. “And then I said something to him in Hindi which Sarfraz Nawaz was saying to me in his follow-through every time — a Punjabi pronunciation of Ben Stokes, you know. Sorry.”

The next morning Rana refused to take the field unless Gavaskar apologised, delaying the start by five to seven minutes. The match was in any case petering out into a draw. Gavaskar told his manager he was willing to apologise only if Sarfraz was also pulled up.

“I said to Shakoor — what Sarfraz has been saying to me, you put your hand on your mouth and laugh. If he didn’t find that objectionable being said to me, why is he finding what I said objectionable? My pronunciation was more Indian than the Punjabi pronunciation.”

The Ambulance Ride

Gavaskar also recalled the lighter side of a painful injury — a broken cheekbone sustained while fielding at forward short leg when a sweep shot caught him flush on the face. He began bleeding from the ear and was stretchered off on doctor’s orders.

In the ambulance, a reserve player P Krishna Murthy was tasked with keeping him awake in case he slipped into a coma — and took the job very seriously.

“Every time I closed my eyes he would shake me — Sunny! Sunny! Sunny!” Gavaskar said. “I was in pain, I’m in the ambulance, and I wanted to hammer him and give him a cheekbone fracture myself.”

He added that Ian Botham later broke his leg at silly point with a cut shot — but Botham has always insisted it was Yashpal Sharma pressing the injured leg on the ground immediately after that actually caused the fracture, not the blow itself.

Border’s Chennai Standoff

Border recalled being threatened with dismissal during the tied 1986 Chennai Test after swearing at an umpire who flagged his slow over rate, with India closing in on an improbable target after his side had posted 574 in their first innings.

“I said, you just worry about your umpiring and let me worry about how this game is going to end up. Just stay out,will you?! And there were a few more Australian swear words in there,” Border said. And he said “i can send you off!”

He turned to vice-captain David Boon standing alongside. “I said, he can’t send me off, can he?” Boon’s response was characteristically brief. “He just said, bugger if I know, and took off!”

The One Run Game

Border also recalled a remarkable ODI against India in the 1987 World Cup match where manager Alan Crompton approached match referee Hanumant Singh after a Dean Jones six had been signalled as four in the final over. The two runs added took Australia’s total from 272 to 274. India made 273 in reply.

“If it wasn’t for Alan Crompton going up to see Hanumant Singh, India win that first game,” Border said. “Who knows where Australia would have finished having lost the first game by such a small margin.”

Bradman’s Mumbai Bradman

The conversation produced a warm moment when Gavaskar recalled landing in Australia with the Rest of the World team to be received by Sir Don Bradman, who had personally selected the squad after South Africa’s tour was cancelled. Spotting Gavaskar talking to Zaheer Abbas with Rohan Kanhai nearby, Bradman called them over.

“He said — that’s a Mumbai Bradman, that’s a Karachi Bradman. And that’s a real Bradman,” Gavaskar recalled.

There in spirit

Perhaps the lightest moment came when Gavaskar described a rain delay in Manchester during a Rest of the World game. While everyone — Dilip Vengsarkar, John Bracewell, Border, Dean Jones — ran laps in the cold, Gavaskar sat in the dressing room with a cup of tea, knowing he had about two months left in his career.

When Border asked where he had been, Gavaskar was ready.
“I said, I was there in spirit. Didn’t you feel a presence next to you?”

The Favourite Umpire

When Taufel asked both men to name their favourite umpire, both settled on Dicky Bird. Gavaskar recalled how the Englishman once trimmed his hair on the field, using the scissors umpires carried to check the seam, when it kept falling into his eyes.

“I said, as long as you don’t give me out,” Gavaskar laughed.

Border, while graciously acknowledging that Taufel had been exceptional, praised Bird for his ability to calm players down and get his decisions right in a pre-DRS era.

“Just the rapport he had with the players. He did not make many mistakes in an era where that mattered most,” Border said.