Sunil Gavaskar feels ‘blessed’ as young Indian Cricket sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi sees him as inspiration

SUnil Gavaskar ruled the cricketing field of force in the ’70s and ’80s, but the wallop he left wing with his scant has echoed through and through the years until now. Recently, the young Indian cricketing prodigy, 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who turned out to be the breakout star from IPL 2026, credited Sunil Gavaskar as his inspiration. Recalling that moment, the legendary cricketer tells us, “It makes me feel blessed that somebody who would not have even seen me play, or might have seen an odd grainy video from the early days, would come and say that. Youngsters today have so many things on their mind, but for them to see you in that capacity, is a blessing.” Gavaskar insists that he is blown away with the young cricketing talent that is festering in the country at the moment. “It’s just mind blowing the talent that is there in Indian cricket and the opportunities that it gets. Not a lot of credit is given to the BCCI (Board of Cricket Council in India) for that,” he says.Elaborating on it, the former cricketer says, “The things they are doing with women's cricket, that too at all age levels, is amazing. They are organising more than 3000 matches and never get anything wrong. It’s incredible and they are the unsung heroes. Even commentary in all the local languages makes a big difference, and kids watching it get inspired. Due to these opportunities, cricket has finally become a good career option. Earlier, a lot of very good cricketers would leave the sport for a more viable and safe career option. Cricket is now such a well paying profession, even parents are pushing their kids to pursue it and make a career out of it.” But does he feel that somewhere the sport has now become more of a batsman game, rather than a more even competition between the bat and ball? “It’s more in the T20 format, but still in the one-day format and Test cricket, depending on the kind of pitches you play on, it comes out to be an even contest between bat and ball. Your skills and your temperament are definitely tested. T20s are a completely different sport, it's more entertainment. Therefore, you see a lot more of the batsmen innings,” he responds.Away from the game, Gavaskar has also been associated with a noble initiative, Gift Of Life, in which he joined the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Centre which provided 850 life saving heart surgeries for underprivileged children free of charge. Proud of this association, he says, “I refer to this as my third innings in life. My inspiration was (late Indian cricketer) Vijay Merchant. After he finished playing cricket, and while he was also an administrator and chairman of the selection committee, he was also one of the initial founding members of the National Association of Blind. He used to call that his second innings, and for me, this is my third innings.” Gavaskar says that the happiness he sees on parents’ face who had only known hopelessness and despair before coming to them makes him feel joy which is greater than “scoring a double century”. He says, “Most of these children come from the interiors of the country, facing financial challenges and medical assistance is not always there for them. Our record is more than 99% success rate. When the surgeons come out to tell the parents that the operation’s been successful, the change in their from hopelessness and despair, to tears of joy, seeing that has given me more pleasure than scoring a double century. It’s been very fulfilling.”With so much interesting life stories behind him, is he open to the idea of having a biopic made on his life? “My life is not interesting at all. So, no biopic for me,” Gavaskar signs off with a laugh.