Golden ducks, Gavaskar’s rare record, and the first ball that ruined a career

Sunil Gavaskar is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time. His perfect technique, flawless stroke play, monumental powers of concentration, fearlessness in facing the fastest bowlers in the world without wearing a helmet and insatiable hunger for runs marked him out as one of the best batsmen in the world during the 1970’s and 1980’s. His ability to post tall scores also led to him writing and rewriting the record books on numerous occasions. He became the highest run scorer in Test cricket, was the holder of the record for the maximum number of centuries, and became the first batsman to reach the landmark of 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Besides this, he scored a century in each innings of a Test on three occasions, made more than 1,000 runs in a calendar year four times and still holds the record for highest number of runs scored by a batsman in his debut series.

However, a little known record of Gavaskar, one that he has no reason to be proud about, suddenly attracted attention during the week that went by. When Shadman Islam, the opening batsman from Bangladesh, was dismissed off the first ball of the second Test of the series against Australia, played at Mackay, statisticians were quick to inform that this was the 36th occasion when a batsman was dismissed off the first ball of a Test. A quick look at the batsmen so dismissed revealed that Gavaskar and Hannan Sarkar of Bangladesh share the dubious distinction of having got out in this manner on three occasions. For the record, Hannan Sarkar played in 17 Tests for his country between 2002 and 2004 and finished with a modest tally of 662 runs, at an average of 20.02 per innings.

It is not unusual for batsmen to be dismissed off the first ball of an innings. This applies to batsmen who open the innings also. Hence, logic suggests that a batsman who takes guard at the commencement of a Test match also stands an equal chance of getting out as those who follow him in the batting order. However, records show that this occurrence is not common and has happened only 36 times in the 2633 Tests played so far. This is mostly on account of the fact that both batsmen and bowlers are in a defensive mode during the first over of a match when they try to size up each other as well as the pitch and other conditions and generally do not try anything risky or spectacular in this phase.

Given the above set of facts, it appears highly unusual that a batsman of the calibre of Gavaskar got dismissed off the first ball of a Test thrice. Hence it is worth examining when these incidents took place. The first was at Edgbaston, Birmingham, at the start of the third Test between India and England during the ill-fated series of 1974. India had lost the first two Tests of the series, and the manner in which the side got bundled out for 42 in the second innings of the second match at Lord’s had led to intense criticism back home. The team had to further face the ignominy of being asked by the Indian High Commissioner to leave a function organised in their honour as they arrived late. To top it all, there was an allegation of shoplifting against Sudhir Naik, where the poor player was incorrectly advised by Hemu Adhikari, the team manager, to plead guilty. There were reports that stones were thrown by an irate mob at the house of Ajit Wadekar, the captain. Thus, the morale of the side was at an all-time low when the Test started at Birmingham.

Incidentally, Gavaskar’s batting was one of the few bright spots of this series. He had scored a century and fifty on a green top at Manchester and been involved in an opening stand of 131 runs with Farokh Engineer in the first innings of the Lord’s Test. Besides, he had scored 989 runs in the first-class games played as part of the tour before the last Test began and appeared certain to reach the milestone of 1,000 runs in a season. However, fate willed otherwise as he edged the very first ball of the match sent down by Geoff Arnold and was caught by Alan Knott behind the stumps. He did not do much better in the second innings either, being dismissed for just four runs. Thus, he fell short of attaining the landmark of scoring 1,000 runs during the tour as well.

The next instance took place at Kolkata during the series against West Indies in 1983-84. It was a full strength West Indian side led by Clive Lloyd, which boasted of having in their ranks such fearsome fast bowlers as Andy Roberts, Mike Holding, Malcolm Marshall and Winston Davis. Except for a stroke filled century at Delhi and an innings of 90 at Ahmedabad, Gavaskar had not scored heavily during this series. Hence expectations were not very high when he took guard against Marshall after India won the toss and chose to bat at Kolkata. But even before the spectators could settle down, Gavaskar was walking back to the pavilion when an attempted nudge down the leg side resulted in a comfortable catch to wicket keeper Jeff Dujon.

The highly temperamental and volatile crowd at Kolkata did not resort to any boos or jeers when Gavaskar walked back without scoring. However, when he was dismissed in the second innings after playing a loose shot, they did not hold back. The crowds gave vent to their fury and even went to the extent of heckling his wife Marshneil when she went to attend a commitment before a television channel. The defeat in this Test also resulted in stones being pelted at the team bus.

The last occasion when Gavaskar was dismissed off the first ball took place at Jaipur during his last series- against Pakistan in 1986-87. He was on the verge of reaching the landmark of 10,000 runs in Tests and there was considerable excitement all over the country. Moreover, he was in good touch with the bat as seen from the knock of 91 in the first Test. But the Jaipur crowd who had flocked to the stadium in large numbers were disappointed when he edged the first ball of the match from Imran Khan straight to the hands of Javed Miandad. He scored only 24 runs in the second innings and had to wait till the next Test at Ahmedabad to reach the milestone of 10,000 runs.

Apart from Gavaskar, six other Indian batsmen have been dismissed off the first ball of a Test- Sudhir Naik, W V Raman, Shivsundar Das, Wasim Jaffer, K L Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Amongst these dismissals, the one involving Naik is the most tragic one. As stated in an earlier para, Naik was unfortunate to have been unfairly accused of shoplifting while shopping at a huge departmental store in London, where he bought socks for not only himself but his teammates also. However, one pair of socks got left out while billing and this was picked out by the scanner. Though Naik tried to explain that this happened by oversight and he had paid for all the remaining items, authorities were not impressed and they informed the police, who produced him before the Magistrate. Unfortunately, Hemu Adhikari, the team manager, advised him to plead guilty, hoping to hush up the affair. But the matter got leaked out from the court and news was splashed across the world portraying Naik as a shoplifter.

However, Naik put this sordid saga behind him and batted well to score a polished 77 in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test, where he made his debut. He was selected to the side to play in the second Test of the series against the touring West Indies side in Delhi in December 1974. He batted fluently against the West Indian attack and scored 48 runs in the first innings. He was amongst the few Indian batsmen who could tackle Andy Roberts, the leader of the West Indian attack, with some degree of comfort and hence must have been looking forward to the test at Kolkata.

But Naik was in for a shock after India won the toss and decided to bat on a wicket that had some “juice” in it. No sooner did Naik walk out to bat than a substantial portion of the 80,000 strong crowd at Eden Gardens started chanting “moje chor” in unison. Maybe the ire of the crowd was more on account of the fact that Gopal Bose, a local lad at this venue and a strong contender for the spot of opening batsman in the side, was not given a chance to play this game. Whatever the reason, this reaction from the crowd would have turned even the toughest of customers into a bag of nerves. Naik was in no mental shape to take on the fury of Roberts when this barracking was going on and was dismissed first ball, caught behind by Derryck Murray. He scored only 6 runs in the second outing and was dropped from the squad, and never considered again by the selectors, thus bringing the curtains to his career in Test cricket.

All batsmen try their utmost to avoid getting dismissed for a “duck”. The shame of walking back to the pavilion with the head bowed without troubling the scorers is something that all cricketers dread. The ignominy is even worse when this happens right at the start of the match and that too off the very first ball. But such occurrences are an integral part of this wonderful sport and do not cast any permanent slur on the ability and prowess of the batsmen so dismissed. The fact that even the legendary Gavaskar has faced this situation on three occasions stands as testimony to the fact that even the greatest can be subjected to such humbling experiences.