Did You Know Sunil Gavaskar Was Almost Switched At Birth With A Fisherwoman's Baby?
Happy Birthday Sunil Gavaskar!
Sunil Gavaskar made his debut against West Indies in March 1971 at Port of Spain. He played bowlers such as Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall with effortless grace. In his time, he was the greatest ever Test batsman to walk on the pitch. And he became an inspiration for many stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.
But all this might have not happened. Indian cricket might not have changed forever. India would have not gone through the spectacular transition it eventually did. Because
Gavaskar, who was born on July 10, was almost switched at birth with a fisherwoman's baby.
Gavaskar once recalled and wrote in his autobiography, Sunny Days, "I may never have become a cricketer and this book would certainly not have been written, if an eagle-eyed relation, Narayan Masurekar, had not come into my life the day I was born (July 10, 1949)."
He further continued, "It seems that Nan-Kaka (as I called him), who had come to see me in hospital on my first day in this world, noticed a little hole near the top of my left earlobe."
He then explained how he was on the brink of getting swapped with a fisherwoman's baby. "The next day he came again and picked up the baby lying on the crib next to my mother. To his utter horror, he discovered that the baby did not have the hole on the left earlobe. A frantic search of all the cribs in the hospital followed, and I was eventually located sleeping blissfully beside a fisherwoman, totally oblivious of the commotion I had caused! The mix-up, it appears, followed after the babies had been given their baths," he said.
Remembering this anecdote, we wish the original little master a very happy 74th birthday.
