Sachin
is great, but Sunil was better
Vijay
Kumar
(
As told to and developed by Gaurav Sahay )
Sachin’s
announcement sent the media in a tizzy with each channel trying to outdo the
other, invoking the old interviews with the Master, showing clippings of some
of his innings, organizing hurried panel discussions. The announcement stormed
and overwhelmed the media. And at the end of the day, it was just unmitigated panegyric
and hyperbole. Objectivity was given a go by though there was a write-up,
rather caustic, by Mukul Kesvan, which put the entire drama of Sachin’s
retirement in a perspective.
Sachin
virtually took the baton from the other but the original Master Sunil Gavaskar.
With Sachin’s passing out of the game now dated, a reflection on the relative
greatness of the two would have been in the context. Only one channel – CNN-IBN
– did put on a programme, recorded earlier, which brought Sunil and Sachin in
mutually adulating conversation. But the programme was neither expected nor did
it attempt to compare the Masters.
I am
63 years plus, and I have followed, with some passion, both Sunil and Sachin
for the entire length of their respective careers. I owe my credentials to
speak on the subject to the fact that I was also part of Sunil’s times.
If I
am to compare the two, I will have several larger reasons to clearly place
Sunil ahead of Sachin. It will not be a close call as between Duleep
Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan.
There
are parameters on which the two can be compared : their initial impact, their dominance
of the bowling, the opposition quality, their contribution to overseas
victories, their position in the team, their captaincy, and their attitude to the game.
The initial impact. The time sifts important from trivia,
permanent from ephemeral. As I recall the happenings of seventies of the
previous century, only seven events flash to my mind and stand out vividly as
epoch making events. These were, indicated in the order of their importance :
India’s victory over Pakistan leading to the formation of Bangladesh, the
Emergency, the ouster of Congress ( 1977 General Elections ), the Pokharan
Nuclear Blast, the launch of Aryabhatta, India’s Hockey World Cup victory and
Sunil’s debut series. Each of these events, barring the Emergency, is important
as it gave to an Indian in the street a hitherto un-experienced self-belief and
self-esteem. And in retrospect, even the Emergency led to a definite plus – the
masses hitting back at authoritarianism with a vengeance through the ballots.
Sunil
Gavaskar demarcated the Indian Cricket. Before him, our performance overseas
was hardly better than that of Bangla Desh as of now. There was just one
overseas win; that was against New Zealand which, along-with India, languished
at the bottom amongst the cricket playing countries. The Indians looked to
occasional heroics which were few and far between : Vijay Hazare at Adelaide,
Vinoo Mankad at Lords and the Nawab of Pataudi at Oval. Sunil’s debut brought in a
paradigm shift as regards India’s standing as a Test playing country. It
achieved quite a few things.
First, suddenly an Indian was up at the top
setting almost an unassailable target for the subsequent openers. This was a
performance which the Indians could only dream of, quite literally as that was
achieved during the hours when India was asleep excepting insomniacs and cricketalcohalics.
Second,
Sunil’s performance ensured series win against the giants of the game, the West
Indies.
Third,
and most important, India broke the psychological barrier of getting past the
West Indies. With that, it crossed the sound barrier !. It came of age. The
Indians were always nervous, rather scared, playing the West Indian pacers. And
Nari Contractor taking an intended bouncer which never rose into his head did
in no way help the Indian nerves. Sunil’s 774 pulled India out of a psychic
limitation. It can be argued that Sunil was lucky to be against a weak pace
battery. However, in these nervy battles, in the battles against the West
Indies, India always started with half the battle lost, irrespective of the
quality of the pace bowlers.
I have read somewhere, that the army of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, under the command of Hari Singh Nalwa, had even the
better of indomitable Afghans. Nalwa in fact was dreaded. In one of the battles
at Jamrud fortress, Nalwa was grievously wounded and was dead. Learning this,
the Afghans attacked the Sikh army with renewed vigour. The wise men in the
Army however played a trick on Afghans. They carried the body of Nalwa to the
fort rampart and put it in an upright position in a manner as to appear looking
straight into the Afghans. The trick
worked. Thinking that Nalwa was alive,
the Afghans retreated. Even the dead West Indies was to India what Nalwa was to
the Afghans. Sunil took India past that psychological barrier.
In
contrast, Sachin would appear a kid which he in fact was, fully ensconced by
the indulgent seniors. He is remembered more for his bloodied nose than his
scores.
The
dominance. Sachin has dominated all attacks. He has to
his credit some of the best knocks of his times. He will appear much ahead of Sunil on this
parameter. But Sunil belonged to a time
when slow and steady was an acceptable approach to the game and he was the best
exponent of it. Besides he was an opener with a vested duty to stay long enough
to ensure that the new ball was off its sheen. Sunil had the technique,
footwork and strokes necessary for dominating the bowling. He gave ample evidence of that while playing
the epic knock of 221 at the Oval Test in 1979.
He also held for a while two enviable records : the fastest Test century
by an Indian (94 balls, against West Indies ) and the fastest one day century
(82 balls, against New Zealand, World Cup 1987). Be that as it may, the fact remains that
Sachin was ahead of Sunil on the point of dominating attacks.
However,
where Sunil scores over Sachin easily is on the point of dominating series. It
should be rather embarrassing for Sachin’s followers that he could not touch
500 runs in any series whether at home or abroad. The closest he came was 494
runs against Australia in 2007/08. The 1998 home series against Australia was
the only series (3 Tests) that he really dominated with 447 runs.
As
against this, Sunil crossed 500 runs mark six times – 774, 542, 732, 529, 505
and 500. While each of the first two
aggregates was achieved in 4 Tests, the remaining ones were achieved in 6 Tests
each. This appears to be the weakest
chink in Sachin’s achievements when one reckons that Rahul twice crossed 600
runs mark. Sehwag and Laxman too crossed
500 mark once. Laxman achieved this in just 3 Tests. The redoubtable Lara crossed
the mark 6 times including 688 runs that he scored in a 3 Tests series.
Sunil
thrice scored centuries in both the innings of a Test match – a feat that eluded
Sachin which his contemporary Rahul achieved twice.
Sachin’s
dominance was innings specific; Sunil dominated series like Rahul. Sunil clearly ahead of Sachin on this
parameter.
The
opposition quality No
one has succeeded like Sunil against pace bowlers each equally lethal –
notably Roberts, Holding, Croft, Garner, Marshall, Lillee, Thomson, Imran,
Hadlee, Snow and Botham. And he had the
nerves to face them all without a head-gear.
Later, he put on a skull cap which was just an apology for a proper
helmet. If Sunil was ever hit on his head, the scull cap would have certainly
compounded the injury. Of spinners, the
notable ones that Sunil faced were Underwood, Gibbs and Qadir.
Sachin
too faced with success the quality of Donald, Macgrath, Walsh, Ambrose, Steyn,
Shoaib, Wasim and Waqar. He also negotiated with remarkable success the spin of
Warne and Muralitharan.
Sunil
scored handsomely against Packer-hit teams - Australia under an aged Simpson
and West Indies under Kallicharan. In
these two series, he scored a total of 7 centuries in 11 Test matches. Nonetheless, he surmounted one quality bowler
in each series – Thompson and a debutant Marshall.
For
Sachin, Bangladesh had always been a handy team to unshackle himself. His record-equaling thirty fourth
century was against Bangladesh. And
finally it was against Bangla Desh that Sachin some-how scored his hundredth
international hundred . Sachin in all has eight ‘weak’ centuries ( five against
Bangladesh and three against Zimbabwe ) against Sunil’s seven.
I am inclined to put helmetless Sunil and
in-war-gear Sachin on even terms on this parameter.
Contribution in overseas victories I
will reckon only away-from-the-sub-continent victories. In Sunil’s times, nine
victories in all were achieved and his contribution was substantial in six of
them. In Sachin’s times too, nine victories were achieved and he substantially
contributed to seven of them.
Sachin will appear a shade ahead.
Position in the team Sunil
was numero uno as long as he was there, the occeasional spectacular
performances of Vishwanath, Vengasarkar and Azhar notwithstanding. Sachin was
number one till the year 2001. He lost the position to Rahul in the series
against England in the year 2003. He briefly regained it in the period 2007- before slumping to fourth or fifth after the
World Cup 2011. Even when Sachin
regained the top slot briefly, Virender Sehwag appeared more blazing and
entertaining. Further, during the period since 2001, Rahul, Laxman and Virender
were credited with greater match winning ability.
Sunil clearly ahead of Sachin.
Captaincy Sachin,
less said the better. He was not the
stuff for captaincy. Sunil, on the other hand, has the credentials to be
considered amongst the best three captains of India – Ganguly and Dhoni being
the other two.. Sunil was in complete command while winning the Bensen &
Hedges’s Cup in 1985.
Sachin is not comparable to Sunil on this
parameter.
Attitude Sunil had the gait of a street fighter. He was unafraid. His attempted walk out in
the Melbourne Test ( 1981 ) was just unthinkable at that point of time – the
minnows of the game daring the giant. He
had in him to drop even the peerless Kapil at his peak, apparently for his recklessness in batting.
Sunil is candid and outspoken as a TV commentator too.
Sachin, on the other hand, appeared vulnerable
under pressure and prone to errors at critical moments. Against Pakistan (
Chennai ), his lofted shot was quite out of character and would have befitted a
tail-ender more. His back spasm could not have been an excuse for that. Often,
he would lapse into an inexplicable defensive shell, encouraging the attack to
go for a kill. His 16 of 98 balls against Pakistan in 2005 ( second innings )
at Bengaluru was thoroughly
disappointing. This was the same match where Sehwag scored 201( in 262 balls ),
Younis Khan 267 and Inzimam 184. India lost. His 14 in 62 balls ( 2nd
Test Cape Town, 2006 ) triggered a collapse. India lost. Having scored 91 -Oval Test 2011 - Sachin
could not hold a little longer which might have ensured a draw. Perhaps, the
possibility of the hundredth hundred weighed him down. Result : India lost the match. In fact, the
country was sick waiting for his hundredth hundred. Fortunately, we had won the war in 1971 and
created a Bangla Desh !
Sachin’s
greatness was never in doubt. The electronic media propelled him to greatness
which is surreal. Sunil was greater but then the projection and publicity were
largely through the print media. The
posterity, at some distance both from Sunil and Sachin, will perhaps evaluate
the two more objectively.
