Cricketers have rejoiced over gifts in the form of pieces of willow just like Gujarat Giants’ WPL star Kashvee Gautam did when Hardik Pandya presented her with a bat of the appropriate weight recently
Kashvee Gautam with Hardik Pandya during the ongoing IPL. Pic courtesy: Kashvee Gautam collection
What better gift for a cricketer than some new gear, presented by a famous name? Gujarat Giants’ women’s cricketer Kashvee Gautam experienced that ‘high’ a few days ago, when India’s T20 star Hardik Pandya presented the medium pacer his bat. Gautam, who was her franchise’s highest wicket-taker with 11 scalps in the last edition of the Women’s Premier League, must have been delighted when Pandya not only lived up to a promise of giving his huge fan his bat, but also shaved the willow to her preferred weight of 1100 grams.
The game of cricket is replete with examples of cricketers being gifted pieces of willow by their more accomplished counterparts. One of the more famous ones – involving Sachin Tendulkar—came to light in his brother Ajit’s 1996 book, The Making of a Cricketer. A 14-year-old Sachin was batting in the Mumbai nets in 1987-88, a season before his first-class debut, when the India captain Dilip Vengsarkar presented the future star a new Gunn & Moore bat; a brand that Vengsarkar endorsed in the 1980s. Ajit described it as a “memorable gift.”
Jatin Paranjape, who went on to play for India as well, was a beneficiary of a Gunn & Moore bat (GM Maestro) from Vengsarkar. “It was one hell of a bat. He also gave me a SP [St Peter] bat when I was 12,” Paranjape told me on Tuesday. Vengsarkar started his ‘A’ division club cricket career with Dadar Union under the captaincy of Jatin’s late father, Vasoo.
Sir Don Bradman had innumerable fans across the world. One of them was Vasoo who, in the evening of his life, was thrilled to bits when a journalist friend gifted him a Slazenger that commemorated Don Bradman’s 1929-30 score of 452 not out which was a record for the most runs in an innings in first-class cricket.
Sanjay Manjrekar related a fascinating story in his book Imperfect. He was playing a match at Cross Maidan in the 1980s when a kid told him that Sunil Gavaskar was looking for him, waiting under a tree at the far end of the ground. In a matter of minutes, Manjrekar was accepting a harrow-sized Gray-Nicolls bat from his idol. Apparently, Sanjay’s father Vijay had requested the batting great to get one for Sanjay from England and he duly obliged.
“Not only was I ecstatic at having received the bat, I was also touched that Gavaskar had personally come to present it to me. He was a busy man and he could have easily got that bat delivered to me through somebody, but he chose to present it to me himself, taking the trouble to find out where I was playing and then making that journey,” wrote Manjrekar.
Gavaskar endorsed several top brands in his 16-year international cricket career that started on India’s 1970-71 tour of the West Indies. In his bestselling autobiography Sunny Days, there is a photograph of him receiving a bat from his uncle and Dadar Union stalwart Madhav Mantri before his departure to the Caribbean, where he scored 774 runs in four Tests.
In the late 1970s, Gavaskar was using a Duncan Fearnley bat while playing for Associated Cement Companies (ACC) against Tata Sports Club at National CC, Cross Maidan during a partnership with Sankaran Srinivasan.
The young batsman from Tamil Nadu kept admiring his partner’s piece of willow and during a break was told that he would get the bat if he scored a hundred. Srinivasan couldn’t convert his good start into a hundred and hence missed out on earning his Duncan Fearnley Run Reaper bat, but told me: “Yes, I was disappointed I couldn’t get that bat but he [Gavaskar] lit a flame in me and that did wonders for my confidence.” Srinivasan later played for Tamil Nadu, after a solitary Ranji Trophy appearance for Mumbai in 1978.
The bat bearing the logo of three stumps tapering to a point was one that a lot of players wanted to own. Imagine former India women’s cricketer Shobha Pandit’s delight when she was presented a Duncan Fearnley bat by New Zealand’s fast bowling great Richard Hadlee. Pandit toured Australia and New Zealand with the Indian team in 1976-77. “Surya Baindoor [deceased] of Khar Gymkhana gave me a County bat that lasted me throughout my career and I got one from Diana [teammate Edulji] which was a bet that I won for scoring a century,” Pandit told me on Tuesday.
Generosity and sentiment are at the heart of every cricket equipment gift and one classic example is of departed Australia all-rounder Max Walker making a young West Indian’s day in Barbados on the 1972-73 Test tour of the West Indies. Joey used to express great delight whenever Walker got a wicket and was disappointed when he missed getting one. During the Test, Walker received a Gray-Nicolls kit which included a bat and leg guards, so he decided to gift away some old gear to Joey. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone’s eyes light up so much,” wrote Walker. And Joey’s response was, “Mr Walker, we ain’t got no pads, we ain’t got no bat, we ain’t got nothing.”
India probable Gautam isn’t like Joey, but her thrill quotient could well be as high. The Chandigarh-born girl turns 22 tomorrow. The best birthday gift she could hope for probably came a few days ago, courtesy Pandya.
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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