Rohan Gavaskar has always lived in the shadow of his father, Sunil, arguably India's greatest batsman.
What the 'Little Master' achieved was always going to be a tough act for him to follow. And, indeed, the burden of expectation is showing on Gavaskar junior, as he is yet to play for the national side.
Rediff.com sought Rohan's views on his father, on the occasion of his 54th birthday.
A first person account:
Comparisons are always drawn with the best. If I'm compared to my father, who happens to be one of the greatest batsmen, so be it!
On living with his father...
It's been great. Fortunately, dad has never pushed me into the game nor pressurized me about playing, so I never felt the pressure of being his son. He was always there for me. If I am getting out in a certain way or if there is a glitch in my batting, he will sort it out.
He once flew down to Kolkata before a Ranji game because I wasn't feeling too confident. He came down and sorted it out for me and I got a hundred the next day. So that way he has always been there for me.
To say we share a relationship based on the game would be untrue. Ours is more a normal father-son relationship than a guru-shishya relationship.
We don't talk so much about cricket since we share a lot of other interests. A lot of people think that he is one of world's greatest batsmen, which I agree, but he is a far greater human being than he is a batsman. There is so much more to learn from him than cricket and, fortunately for me, I can learn that.
If I could be half as good a human being as him I would be more than happy.
On having the family name Gavaskar. Does it open doors for him?
If that was true then I would have played for India after the Pakistan series and the Holland tour of India 'A'; if that was true, I would have played, with a one-day average of 80 in domestic cricket.
You can't change the way people think. As I was growing up people always thought I drink and smoke a lot. But I'm a teetotaler and I don't smoke either. There are certain impressions people have in their minds which you can't change. Certain things should be taken from one ear and taken out through the other.
On Sunil Gavaskar, the captain...
He was a phenomenal captain. Look at the team he had and yet he did an excellent job.
India were playing stronger teams at that time. It would be Australia, England and the West Indies all the time at you. And, generally, to do well against them you had to be a good captain as much as be a good batsman.
On three favourite innings of his father...
- The 188 at Lord's, his last first class innings in the Bicentennial Test.
- 96 at Bangalore, against Pakistan, in 1987
- 103 at Nagpur, against New Zealand, in the 1987 World Cup.
They were three different innings on different planes. The one-day hundred was total entertainment. The 96 at Bangalore was technically superb and the 188 was the best batting display I have ever seen.
As told to Faisal Shariff
