Kolkata: More than 51 summers ago, India got its first cricket superstar in Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. It was March 6, 1971, when a 5-foot-five-inch opening batsman came out of the Port of Spain dressing room for the first time to face a fearsome Caribbean pace battery and kept his willow do the talking for 16 more years till 1987.
Last year it was 50 years of the Test debut of Gavaskar, but the celebration of the chequered career of the former India captain was put on hold due to the raging COVID-19 across the globe.
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A window of opportunity opened a year later in 2022 when two Bengalis — Prosanta Kumar Guha and Dr. Debasish Bhattacharya — both settled in the United States and are prominent cricket promoters in the region, were quick to plan the celebration of the glorious event in the annals of the Indian cricket history.
"It will be an evening dinner with meet and greet. Each of the legends will be speaking on Sunil’s career and achievement on July 30 at 6.15 pm (local time) here," one of the organisers Prosanta Kumar Guha confirmed to ETV Bharat.
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The celebration event will be held in a Detroit suburb, Farmington Hills, which is expected to witness a congregation of some top stars of the yesteryears. The event named '50th Anniversary Of Test Cricket Debut of The Legendary Padma Bhushan Award Recipient Sunil M Gavaskar' will be attended by Gundappa Viswanath, Farokh Engineer, Clive Lloyd, and Kapil Dev besides the Little Master himself. "Kapil was a bit tentative because of the scheduling problem, but now he has confirmed his participation. I had Kapil and the complete Indian team in Detroit in 1986. So he will be visiting us after good 36 years," Guha told this correspondent via a text message.
"This will be Sunil and Vishy’s third visit with us. I had them in 1985, 86 and 2015. In 2015, we celebrated Ajit’s (Wadekar) 45th anniversary of 1971 victories. Chetan (Chauhan), Dilip (Vengsarkar), (Karsan) Ghavri, Farokh, Padmakar Shivalkar and Sunil were in attendance," added Guha, who is lovingly called PK Da.
The organisers expect a gathering of about 800 people.
