When they played together, there were stories about strained relations between the two. But on record, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev have never lashed out at each other. On the contrary, the two have only shown mutual reverence.
And the Haryana Hurricane has once again proved how high an esteem he holds the Little Master in. When Hindustan Times sought Dev’s views on his one-time teammate, Ravi Shastri leaving out Sourav Ganguly of his list of favourite Indian captains, the former skipper said, “It is Ravi’s call, whoever he thinks is a great captain in his mind, but if you ask me, I would rate Sunil Gavaskar above many other Indian captains. Sunny didn’t have the resources in those times so he didn’t win much but suppose he had the same players as say Dhoni or Dada (Ganguly), he would have also won a lot. It is the team that makes you a good or bad captain though smart leaders know how to make best use of resources at their disposal.”
In fact, in terms of records Gavaskar comes nowhere close to Dhoni and Ganguly and even Mohammad Azharuddin. In 47 Tests as captain, Gavaskar tasted victory only on 9 occasions. On the contrary, Dhoni has led India in 27 victories in 60 Tests as a skipper. Ganguly on the other hand has 21 victories as captain in 49 Tests.
If we talk of ODIs, Gavaskar’s India won the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket in 1985 without losing a single match. Unfortunately, Gavaskar has never led India in a World Cup. Dhoni has two World Cups to his credit and a Champions Trophy and also took India to the Number One position in the ICC Test rankings. Ganguly led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup. Well, ODIs were not a regular feature in a cricketer’s itinerary during Gavaskar’s days. Gavaskar has captained India only in 37 ODIs with a winning percentage of 40 per cent against Dhoni’s 59.57 in 199 matches and Ganguly’s 53.90 in 146 matches.
If one is to go with Dev, who himself as captain, won India its first-ever World Cup in 1983, had Sunny got the likes of Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan and others in his team perhaps, his winning record could have been much more impressive. Yet, he tried hard with Kapil Dev, GR Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Karsan Ghavri, Ravi Shastri, Dilip Doshi, to name a few. Barring Dev and Viswanath and to a certain extent Vengsarkar, it’s debatable whether Gavaskar had enough world class match-winners around him. Without undermining Dhoni and Ganguly, there was no dearth of match-winners in their teams who could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Unfortunately, Gavaskar didn’t even have the luxury of the services of the famous spin quartet most of whom had retired around the time Gavaskar took over as a regular skipper.
Gavaskar was captain at a time when India faced teams like West Indies, Australia, Pakistan and England that had so many greats in their ranks. West Indies had the famous pace line up along with legends like Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd. England had Ian Botham, Geff Boycott, Bob Willis, Derek Underwood and others. Pakistan was never short of legends either with Imran Khan, Abdul Qadir, Javed Miandad, to name a few. The Aussies were a mighty force too with Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson, Allan Border, Kim Hughes, Rod Marsh and others.
To many, Sunny was a defensive captain. His idea was to first save a Test match and then go for the kill. He had little choice though, since he didn’t have the resources until a match-winner like Dev himself burst on to the scene.
With Dhoni bidding adieu to captaincy, the debate on who the best Indian captain has been will carry on. But when you sit to give your views a lot of criteria should be taken into account. Yes, figures matter, but if that is so, then the name of Azharuddin could also feature in the list, but let’s not forget that he won most of his matches on the spinner friendly Indian tracks be it in Tests or ODIs.
A legend called Kapil Dev has opened the debate further rating Gavaskar higher than many successful Indian skippers. Those who have seen Gavaskar lead, are aware of the limitations he had to encounter on the field. But still, he taught Indians how to keep their heads high against the fiercest of foes. Perhaps his legacy is unparalleled in its own unique way.
The field is wide open for arguments and counter arguments, guys!