Watch: The Moment Sunil Gavaskar Regrets the Most in his Career

Watch: The Moment Sunil Gavaskar Regrets the Most in his Career: The Sunil Gavaskar’s “moment of madness” took place in the 1981 tour of Australia. Gavaskar was batting with Chetan Chauhan at the other end. Dennis Lilee the fearsome Australian bowled an in cutter and Sunil Gavaskar was caught plumb in front, the fielders appealed wildly and the umpire Rex Whitehead raised his finger to the dismay of a frustrated Gavaskar.

Gavaskar insisted that he got an inside edge and was reluctantly leaving the pitch and that’s when Lilee came to the picture and involved in a verbal duel with the little master. Gavaskar already angry was so infuriated after the altercation with Lilee and asked Chetan Chauhan to walk off the pitch along with him. Everyone were stunned. But just when we think that India had lost the test match on a forfeit decision, Shahid Ali Khan Durani, India’s team manager intervened and calmed Gavaskar down.

He also asked Chetan Chauhan to continue with his innings. Umpire Rex Whitehead has before since delivered a lot of controversial decisions and that’s what angered the little master. Gavaskar’s team had leveled the series but coming back to the infamous incident. He later told the reporters, “I was infuriated by the injustice of it all. Whitehead has stood in all three Tests, and many bad decisions by him have gone against us.”

Lillee in his book, ‘Menace: The Autobiography of Dennis Lillee’ wrote: “…I jagged one back a bit, it whacked him [Gavaskar] on the pad, we appealed but he stood there. Gavaskar claimed he had a nick on to the pads, but we were sure it was clean, as did the umpire. The only one to think there was a problem was Sunny who, up until that day, had never scored runs against me to speak of. I know from what his team-mates told me he was desperate to score a hundred against me; it was frustration at getting so close to his goal which made him blow up”

And as they say it takes great courage to admit your mistakes and only real men can do that. Sunil Gavaskar proved to the world that we was a real man and later apologized for his moment of madness saying that ‘I regret the decision. It was a big mistake on my part.’ He has since then apologized for his behaviour not once but several times.

Watch: The Moment Sunil Gavaskar Regrets the Most in his Career: