Sunil Gavaskar's knock of 36 off 174 balls during the opening match of the 1975 World Cup against England is still remembered for it's notoriety.
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On Tuesday, India cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri shared a photo on his Instagram handle in which he displayed his trophy cabinet. In that, Shastri captioned, “Ha… Too many 36’s. Six 6s mine. Team 36 Adelaide. One-day number 36. Gavaskar 36. @yuvisofficial six 6s. Could be more…”. In the whole caption, there were two positive and two negative instances of the number 36. Recently, India was bowled out for 36 in the Adelaide Pink Ball Test against Australia in December 2020. A couple of weeks ago, Kieron Pollard hit six sixes in one over bowled by Akila Dananjaya in a Twenty20 International in Antigua, making him the third international star and second in T20Is to hit six sixes in one over. Overall, he was the fifth, after Shastri and Sir Gary Sobers to hit six sixes in one over in all forms of cricket.
However, there is one 36 which is still considered a sad chapter in Indian cricket. During the 1975 World Cup encounter, what should have been a momentous occasion for Indian cricket became an ultimate sour point. In India’s first ODI, a knock of 36 by Sunil Gavaskar made the news for all the wrong reasons.
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The most selfish innings in cricket history?
The infamous Sunil Gavaskar 36* off 174 balls, 3 hours 30 mins, in a one day match, in the 1975 World Cup.
W T F was going on…..even the crowd were running onto the field to complain to him! pic.twitter.com/soPFmsxhy3
— Rob Moody (@robelinda2) February 20, 2021
The ODI format was born out of experimentation and opportunity. In 1971, the Boxing Day Test was abandoned between Australia and England in Melbourne was cancelled due to rain. In order to satisfy the crowd, the Australian Cricket Board announced a 45-over ODI in which Australia emerged victorious. England regularly held ODIs and many teams, apart from India, jumped into the bandwagon.
India’s first ODI was in 1975 and it was the World Cup match against England in Old Trafford. England was boosted by a century from Dennis Amiss as he smashed 137 as they notched up 334/4. What followed shocked the entire cricketing world.
India’s response was shoddy. Gavaskar managed to score only 36 runs but he consumed 174 balls. India batted out the entire 60 overs and they managed just 132 runs at a poor run-rate of 2.2. The motives of Gavaskar’s go-slow approach have never been clear. In the aftermath of the match, according to Wisden, Gavaskar said that the pitch was too slow and shot-making was very difficult.
According to other reports, Gavaskar was unhappy with the team selection and that Srinivas Venkatraghavan was the captain. The reactions veered from angry to understanding. Team Manager Gulab Ramchand lashed out at Gavaskar by saying, “It was the most disgraceful and selfish performance I have ever seen… his excuse was, the wicket was too slow to play shots but that was a stupid thing to say after England had scored 334. The entire party is upset about it. Our national pride is too important to be thrown away like this.”
Years later, Gavaskar finally came out with his side of the story. “I asked myself, ‘Why the hell did I not walk the second ball? I was caught behind and would have been out for zero. But nobody appealed. I had flashed outside the off stump… it was just such a faint nick that nobody appealed. The bowler went ‘ah’ and the keeper, Alan Knott, who was standing some way back, did the same. There was no real appeal, no proper ‘how’s that?’ That little moment of hesitation got me so much flak all these years,” Gavaskar said.
India won only one World Cup match in 1975 and 1979 but Gavaskar managed to be part of the winning team in 1983. In 1987, Gavaskar finally broke his ODI rut when he smashed a century off just 88 balls in the World Cup clash against New Zealand in Nagpur. But, in a career with so many highs, the knock of 36 was the ultimate low.
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