Vinod Khanna's first love was cricket, not films!

Bollywood icon Vinod Khanna, who passed away yesterday, had a deep understanding of the game and wanted to see Sunil Gavaskar figure in Kerry Packer's World Series

Vinod Khanna with ex-India captain Diana Edulji during the ICC Women's World Cup at Brabourne Stadium in 2013. Pic/Atul Kamble

If an exceedingly handsome hero is no more, no less a cricket addict was Vinod Khanna. Indeed, he astonished me when he said: "My first love is cricket, not films!" There and then I marked him out as the man to interview for The Illustrated Weekly of India World Cup Special (June 10, 1979). It is from that four lakh-plus record-breaking issue that I here quote Vinod Khanna. Never shall I forget his telling me that this game was more difficult to play than any role he had ever played, if only because there were no retakes in cricket.

Better than the rest
I first saw him batting in that lark called a film stars' cricket match. Vinod, remember, considered himself to be no whit inferior to Amitabh Bachchan as an actor. It was Amitabh - as tall as Salim Durrani - now bowling left-arm spin, round the wicket, to Vinod. And you could instinctually tell that Vinod had played the game at a much higher level. You saw him doing right every single thing that all other filmstars did wrong.

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"You know," noted Vinod, "how Sunil Gavaskar began rivalling Geoffrey Boycott as an opener? Sunny so came on because he knew which Bob Willis ball to leave alone. If you know which ball to leave alone, the ball to hit automatically comes along."

I met him on the sets of Gulzar's Meera, made up as the Rana. I queried him on his best role to come. His response: "When are you asking me the right question?" By which Vinod meant, 'Let's talk cricket if we are to talk turkey.' Over-busy as a top-flight hero then, he made time for me on a drive to a shoot.

'Let's get going'
I met him early in the morning at his home and he simply said: "Let's get going." As he motored down to Panvel for the shoot, I was by his side, the typewriter on my lap. I ticked away even as he drove himself hard. "Viswanath may be in a class by himself," he observed, "but my favourite is Gavaskar. How meticulously careful Sunny is to get in line with the ball. That left foot's always in place. And how, to this day, he uses his feet. I've seen batsmen forgetting the use of their feet as they get on in years. But Gavaskar's an exception."

Sunny, his favourite
"Sunil's most striking trait is his gift of relaxation," continued Vinod. "This is a gift in any vocation. Watch a great actor on the sets, see how relaxed he is before a tense scene. Watch Gavaskar just before he takes his stance for a delivery from Andy Roberts, see how relaxed he is! It's relaxation first, concentration after. If you learn to relax in the middle there, in front of a crowd of 50,000, you automatically learn to concentrate when the moment of action comes. That is, even as you relax you concentrate; and, bit by bit, every bit falls into place. Yet, it's no joke relaxing against the fastest bowling in the world. In Test cricket, you have to learn to fight it out and make them bowl to you. This Sunil did all the way."

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"Gavaskar at the wicket is the picture of perfection. Sunil said he wanted to go to Packer so that he may face the best bowling and get to know how good he really is. There's a creative talent talking. It's only the creative talent that will invite such a challenge, the lesser talent will shy away. But we read the wrong meaning into it and pontificated that Sunil was after the Packer money. In denying Sunil that first opportunity to go to Packer, we denied talent."

Obstacles slammed
"A great actor would welcome the opportunity to act with the best. So would a great cricketer seek an opportunity to play with the best. And the best players were then with Packer. We should therefore have welcomed the opportunity to see how good Gavaskar and Viswanath were when pitted against the world's best. Instead we put obstacles in their way."

As he said that, we found ourselves at his Panvel shooting location. It was with an effort that Vinod moved away from the game for which he lived. It was obvious that he loved the game more than the prize - films.

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