Sunny day for Mumbai cricket captains at Wankhede

Gavaskar embraces ex-Mumbai and India batter Vinod Kambli

Bombay, My Bombay is a chapter in batting legend Sunil Gavaskar's autobiography Sunny Days, released in late 1976 long before the city of his birth changed to Mumbai. The penultimate chapter of the bestselling book consisted of Gavaskar's views on why the city is such a formidable force in the willow game.

In there he also emphasised that Bombay players are the "friendliest" although the "Bombay cricketer will not suffer fools gladly." Indeed, the atmosphere at Wankhede Stadium was friendly on Sunday. Gavaskar was delighted to spend his morning and noon at the Wankhede Stadium, whose golden jubilee celebrations kicked off with a match between the Mumbai Cricket Association Apex Council members and the Sports Journalists' Association of Mumbai (SJAM). MCA won by six runs.

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Sunil Gavaskar (left) being felicitated by MCA president Ajinkya Naik. Pics/Satej Shinde

A felicitation for Mumbai captains (men and women) followed while a function for India captains like Gavaskar, who represented Mumbai, will be held later in the week. However, Gavaskar decided to make his way to D Road nevertheless. He joked that he had come uninvited and the MCA officials could have stopped him from entering.

On a serious note he stressed that he was a Mumbai captain before he became India captain. He also revealed that functions like these give him the pleasure of meeting people from the Mumbai cricket fraternity, his friends and he comes alive. The Wankhede is a special ground for Gavaskar for multiple reasons. He scored his first Test hundred on home soil here - against New Zealand in 1976-77 and followed it up with another in the series against England the same season.

The next Test at Wankhede was the India v West Indies one in 1978-79 when Gavaskar then captaining India for the first time at home, carved a double century against Alvin Kallicharran's men. The fourth century on the trot in Wankhede Tests came against Kim Hughes' Australians the following season while the second last of Gavaskar's 34 Test hundreds was at the Wankhede in 1986-87 (against Australia). Among the Mumbai captains felicitated was Milind Rege, his childhood friend. It was sunny Sunday in every sense.