Former opening batsman and national head coach Anshuman Gaekwad passed away in Vadodara following a long battle with blood cancer on Wednesday. He was 71. A veteran of 40 Tests was suffering from blood cancer and had recently returned after having treatment in London. He also served as a selector and head coach of the national team.
Gaekwad’s long ailment brought many of his erstwhile colleagues forward, either offering financial help or asking the BCCI to release some funds. Board secretary Jay Shah had recently released Rs 1 crore for his treatment.
“It’s a loss to the cricket fraternity. He was a great taskmaster. Always passionate and loved talking about cricket. I had met him one month ago and his situation wasn’t nice. We looked up to him when we were young. I played under him too,” former India wicketkeeper Kiran More said.
“He never liked players reaching late at the ground. He always had a great vision for cricket and was a student of the game. One doesn’t find people anymore. He continued to play a role in the administration. He was a gem of a person. He helped me during my early days in cricket. He was like a lion in Baroda those days,” More added.
“I was privileged to play with three of the bravest cricketers in Indian cricket. Eknath Solkar, Jimmy (Mohinder) Amarnath and Anshuman Gaekwad. We had heard about the bravery and guts of Nari Contractor playing with a broken rib and going on to score 81 at Lord’s. That was inspirational to budding cricketers that when it comes to playing for your country you must take all the blows and keep fighting for your team. That’s exactly what Ekki, Jimmy and Charlie as Anshuman was known , did when they donned the India cap. Very depressing news but Charlie showed here again that he wasn’t going to give his life’s wicket easily and fought right till the end. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said.
Shah also expressed his grief at the demise of the former cricketer. “My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr Anshuman Gaekwad. Heartbreaking for the entire cricket fraternity. May his soul rest in peace,” he wrote on X.
In an international career spanning 12 years, Gaekwad also appeared in 15 ODIs and was known as a gutsy and courageous batsman, never hesitant to take blows on the body for the team. What he lacked in stroke-play, he made for up in bravery against the fearsome pace bowlers of that period. An average of just over 30 with two Test hundreds may not appear too special, but he did have a double hundred against Pakistan in Jalandhar in 1983, an innings that lasted 671 minutes, the slowest 200 in first-class cricket at that time. His only other ton at Test level came against West Indies in Kanpur in 1979, against an attack that included a young Malcolm Marshall.
But Gaekwad is likely to be known more for his determination and guts in scoring 81 against the Caribbean speedsters in the infamous 1975-76 Test in Kingston, Jamaica. That innings – played against the likes of Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel, Vanburn Holder and Bernard Julien – lasted 450 minutes before the opener was pinned on the ear by a Holding bouncer that punctured his eardrum, necessitating an operation. Those were the days before helmets and bouncer restrictions, and the West Indies were coming off the perceived humiliation of their inability to defend a 400+ target in the fourth innings in the previous Test at Port of Spain, Trinidad.
His opening partner Gavaskar recalls the incident in his book Sunny Days. “On the dot of lunch, Anshuman, who had taken many blows on the body and his hands, was hit just behind the left ear. It was yet another short ball and it went like a guided missile knocking Anshuman’s spectacles off… Anshuman Gaekwad represented the splendid fighting spirit of our team. When he was forced to retire, much against his wish, our will to fight also got knocked out.”
Gaekwad also had a decent stint as Team India head coach during the second half of the 1990s. He was there when India defeated Mark Taylor’s Australia 2-1 in a home Test series, and soon afterwards, beat them to win a tri-series in Sharjah. That tournament is memorable for the two back-to-back hundreds from Sachin Tendulkar against Steve Waugh’s men. The first one, during which a dust storm blew over the venue, is popularly referred to as the ‘Desert Storm’.
Gaekwad was also the coach when Anil Kumble took all 10 wickets in an innings against Pakistan, led by Wasim Akram, at Delhi in 1999. That victory helped India, led by Mohammad Azharuddin, to level the two-match Test series. The previous Test had seen the visitors prevailing by 12 runs in a heart-stopping climax, after a late-order collapse subsequent to one of the greatest Tendulkar hundreds.
The other highlights of Gaekwad’s stint as coach were the 1998 Independence Cup triumph in Bangladesh and India making it to the final of the inaugural ICC Champions Trophy, then played in a knockout format, in Kenya in 2000, where they lost to New Zealand. At the first-class level, Gaekwad had 34 hundreds, the last of which came in his last game.
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