Gurusinha pays beautiful tribute to Indian legend Gavaskar
dubai — Asanka Gurusinha’s mental fortitude came to the fore when he joined hands with Aravinda de Silva to script Sri Lanka’s famous victory over Australia in the 1996 World Cup final despite losing two early wickets.
Chasing 242 in Lahore, Sri Lanka were 23 for two before Gurusinha (65) shared a 125-run partnership with De Silva (107 not out), taking the sting out of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in the most famous night in Sri Lankan cricket history.
Now 24 years after his World Cup heroics, Gurusinha said it was Sunil Gavaskar’s ability to handle difficult situations that inspired him as a cricketer.
Gavaskar celebrated his 71st birthday on Friday.
And Gurusinha, during a webinar with Dubai’s Tellicherry Cricket Academy on Friday, paid a beautiful to tribute to Gavaskar, advising young cricketers to learn from the former Indian captain’s batting philosophy.
“Sunil Gavaskar was a legend. Playing against him was an honour, but at the same time it was a challenge as well. So the things I learned from him as a batsman was how he handled situations,” Gurusinha said while replying to a question from Khaleej Times on Gavaskar’s contribution to cricket.
“He was never worried about anything. Gavaskar was always playing the next ball. He was so focused,” said Gurusinha who played 41 Test matches and 147 one-dayers for Sri Lanka.
And Gurusinha revealed on Friday that as a young Sri Lankan international, he had once gone into the Indian dressing room after a game to learn the art of batting from the Indian legend.
“I was also lucky enough to sit in the dressing room one day after a game with him. I went with Roshan (Mahanama) and we were talking to him about cricket. He told us, ‘as long as you know where your off stump is, you have won the battle’. He also told us to defend only those ball that are going to hit the stumps,” Gurusinha recalled.
Gurusinha could not have paid a better tribute to Gavaskar -- the first player to score 10,000 Test runs — who finished his career with 34 Test hundreds, 13 of which came against the mighty West Indies pace attack of the 1970s and 1980s.