‘Sunil Gavaskar permanent box at Wankhede Stadium’, a gift from MCA to the cricket legend
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Sunil Gavaskar
The cricket veteran Sunil Gavaskar will be gifted a permanent box in his name at the Wankhede Stadium on March 9. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) gift marks the special occasion of 50 years since his international debut against the West Indies in 1971.
The 71-year-old batting great famously made a mark right in his Test debut against the West Indies at Port of Spain on March 6, 1971, scoring 65 and 67 not out. No doubt, he would still savour his debut series as the former went on to score an incredible 774 runs @154.80 – the most number of runs by any batsman in his maiden Test series – playing a massive role in India beating one of the strongest sides in world cricket at that time on its home turf.
Special box for Gavaskar at Wankhede Stadium
The MCA’s Apex Council had been in talks since a year to gift the cricket legend a token for being associated with Indian cricket for about half a century. In July last year, the Council had decided to allot a special box to Gavaskar on the occasion of him completing 50 years since his international debut. Revering the legend, the MCA had decided on this gesture as a mark of restoring his two fixed seats at the Wankhede Stadium which were missing after the stadium was refurbished before the 2011 World Cup.
On Saturday, Gavaskar was invited by the MCA to the Wankhede Stadium. President Vijay Patil and secretary Sanjay Naik showed him where the box, containing 10-12 seats, named after him would be situated.
“We are delighted to honour one of the world’s greatest opening batsman to ever play the game and India’s pride, the legendary Shri Sunil Gavaskar with a permanent box at our Iconic Wankhede stadium. Today, we gave him a tour of the proposed box which will be formally assigned on March 9 when we felicitate the Indian legend on completing 50 years since making his international debut,” MCA president Vijay Patil told TOI on Saturday.
After Gavaskar retired, in 1988 the Bombay Cricket Association (BCA, as it was known as then) president SK Wankhede reserved two seats each for the corporate giant JRD Tata, famed singer Lata Mangeshkar and Gavaskar in the front row of the Garware pavilion bench.
During his cricketing days, gutsy Gavaskar opened the batting for Team India. He even served the Indian Team with his captaincy.
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Sahil Sethi
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