Sunil Gavaskar reveals why he never wore a helmet

One of the cult heroes of the 80s, Sunil Gavaskar redefined how the game should be played and created an impeccable legacy for himself in the gentleman’s game. With a touch of grace and a baggage of bravery, the “Little Master” managed to make the greatest of bowlers scratch their heads out of helplessness.

Another major feature everyone appreciates about the legendary batsman is that he never ever wore a helmet. Considering a fact that he played during the era of Michael Holding, Sir Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Sir Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee etc., one can only wonder where he sourced the courage from.

In a candid discussion with Gaurav Kapur on his talk show Breakfast with Champions, Gavaskar answered this question with a touch of humour. “Why did you never wear a helmet?” questioned a perplexed Kapur. Gavaskar hilariously responded telling, “There was nothing in the head to save!”

Imran Khan always suggested me to wear a helmet

Cricketers might be rivals on the field, but most of them share a cordial relationship outside the ground. One of Gavaskar’s well-wishers and the legendary Pakistani all-rounder, Imran Khan was one of the people who always suggested the 69-year-old to wear a helmet, but the latter never did.

“Seriously, I never even thought about it. The guy who kept going after me to wear a helmet was Imran (Khan). He would say ‘it has got nothing to do with being macho, it’s for that one ball everybody loses sight of.’ I had got a skull cap made, it was in my kit bag and travelled around for 3 years. I never used it,” he said.

He also reminisced of the incident where was hit on the skull off Malcolm Marshall, one of the fastest bowlers the game has ever witnessed. He did use a skull cap briefly after that, but then he preferred to keep that away.

“In the West Indies series, I got hit by (Malcolm) Marshall. After that, I did use the skull cap briefly, but I went through the whole series without wearing the helmet. Later on, I learned that wearing a skull cap was more dangerous than not wearing anything, hence I didn’t prefer to wear anything after that,” Gavaskar recollected.

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