वन डे वंडर्स: One Day Wonders

by Sunil Gavaskar

‘एकच चौकार’चा पहिला अंक प्रकाशित झाला, त्यावेळची गोष्ट. ‘उत्कर्ष’ जोशींकडं आम्ही क्रिकेटवर दिलखुलास गप्पा छाटत होतो. सुनीलनं लिहिलेली क्रिकेटवरची दोन पुस्तकं ‘उत्कर्ष’तर्फे मराठीत येत असल्याची जाहिरात ‘चौकार’च्या अंकात होती. ती जाहिरात जोशींनी मला दाखवली.
‘अनुवाद कोण करतंय्?’ मी सहज विचारलं.
‘शंकर अभ्यंकर,’ क्षणाचाही विलंब न लावता जोशींनी सांगितलं.
मला थोडं आश्चर्य वाटलं. कारण सुनीलची त्या आधीची पुस्तकं मी मराठीत भाषांतरीत केली नव्हती. जोशींचं सांगणं ‘ब्रह्मवाक्य’ असल्यामुळं नकार न देता मी ‘बघतो’ म्हटलं. तेवढ्यात हस्तलिखित त्यांच्याकडं देण्याची तारीखही जोशींनी मला सांगून टाकली.
फाजील चौकशीचं मला फळ मिळालं ते असं!
सुनीलची लेखनशैली त्याच्या फलंदाजी

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005.
Gavaskar was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack regarded as the most vicious in Test history.

Reviews

[Roopkumar Balachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book on the Benson and Hedges World Cup 1985 held in Australia and Rothmans Cup in Sharjah. A detailed account from the Ace opener Sunil Gavaskar on his captainship, Indian batting and bowling especially Srikanth, Kapildev and spin legend Sivaramakrishnan.

A must book for cricket fans.

[Ravi Mahajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple linear description of an event that Indian cricket lovers remember with great fondness. An Indian cricket team of veterans and youngsters many of them now legends in the Indian cricket pantheon came together and for one glorious competition beat all comers including arch rivals Pakistan and won an Audi making that brand famous in all the land. This is what went on before during and after the famous Benson and Hedges Cup proving that the 1983 World Cup was not a fluke and India had really and finally arrived and a cricket mad country got the heroes it wanted and deserved.

[Shailesh Nagarkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most entertaining book written by Sunil 'Sunny' Gavaskar if not the most well written. This book describes the Indian Cricket's unbeaten victories in two one-day series viz. 1985 World Championship of Cricket(WCC) in Australia and Rothmans Cup in Sharjah where the former was Sunny's last series as a captain. The book starts with how Sunny almost lost his captainship prior to start of WCC due to some defeats and then moves on to how India played each match in WCC where India had to face arch-rivals Pakistan in opening and the final game. And to add to that the first match in Rothmans cup was again between India and Pakistan and how India managed to beat Pakistan despite of defending a paltry score of 125.
Some of the anecdotes and humorous incidents keeps the reader glued and turn each page. Like Sunny and Javed Miandad's toss incident, Sunny airing some time so that Pakistan Innings does not finish too early, Imran Khan's reply to Sunny's question of how much are you eating before going to bowling and the nap of entire team before going to bowl in Rothmans Cup. This book also displays Sunny's worries as a captain for each of his team even in net practice.
The number of pages is just a few hundred so anyone can finish reading in one shot. I would recommend this book to cricket fans to recollect the fond memories of Indian ODI victories of 1985.

[Salil Lavgankar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunil Gavaskar as we know is a legendary Indian cricketer and truly revered by all Indian cricketing fans. He has also forged a successful second innings in broadcasting after retirement continuing till present day. However the younger generation may not be quite aware that he was also a prolific writer in his playing days and this book is just a wonderful team member of his writings.

The book primarily describes the tour of Australia for the World Championship of Cricket and the Rothmans Sharjah tournament in 1985, both capping a successful period for Indian cricket in limited overs cricket after the reverses against England at home prior in the Indian season.

The book written after the tournament is a great contemporary read and has the advantages of being a real ‘inside the team’ kind of anecdotal story. Gavaskar- as the writer is in full form and sparkles with his humour, wit and straightforward narration. The book is also filled with some not-so known nuggets- for e.g. Shastri being informally sounded for captain for the tour, the team not knowing that the tournament was being played in coloured clothing throughout and many more. It also takes us to a bygone non-fully commercial era- where players had to make their own arrangements- including for travelling, food during such tours, and where fans could enter dressing room- quite unthinkable in today’s world. It also shows some elements which have remained the same in some form or the other- i.e. like selection shenanigans with Gavaskar asked to climb out of hotel wall to attend a selection meeting being a classic example.

The book is quite enjoyable and give some good insights into the players- some like Sadanand Vishwanath, L Siva who shone for a brief time. Also the fact that India won these tournaments just make the journey more memorable.

Gavaskar takes the opportunity to put his views forward and tackle some controversies in the press- like not coming to clap for Azhar when he reached his century, dropping Kapil etc, relevant in that era with no social media.

A nice and insightful journey into India’s triumphant cricketing period- definitely recommended.

[Divik · Rating 4 out of 5]

The year was 1985..This is one book by Sunny Gavaskar that is hard wired in memory..it is based on the famous Indian victory of Benson and Hedges World Series organised by Australia in 1985...It actually marked arrival of India as 1983 was considered as fluke by many...this series was different Sunny Gawaskar was Captain and he didn't open..it was Srikanth and Ravi Shastri who were opening...then there was Sadanand Vishwanath ,the mercurial wicket keeper and the new sensational leg spinner in Lakshman Shivarama krishnan..not sure how many were lucky to see this series..first of its kind after kerry paker series in which all wore colored clothing, it was covered by Channel 9 ...remember seing some matches in old black and white TV..most vived memories are of donald duck walking along the batsman and finally when India defeated Pakistan in finals and Ravi Shastri was awarded Audi as Man of the series or Champion of Champions ...the image of whole indian team sitting on the audi and taking rounds captured the imagination of world and infact Audi became dream car of many including me since then...One Day Wonders is match by match account of the World Series with Sunny as captain and what caught my imagination more was the coloured pics in the book...

[Anu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Girish Querido II · Rating 5 out of 5]

1985 - Golden year for India's ODI cricket as they won the champions trophy and followed it up with the victory in tour de UAE.