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 ( 2^nd 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.