Great thread, I wasn't aware Vaskar and Bedi told Packer to get lost.... Kudos to the Indian players of those dayss..
Bedi rejected Packer's offer with some harsh words, philosophical reasons as noted by the celebrated cricket writer Gideon Haigh. Gavaskar is an entirely different matter. Among the 3/4 Indians offered the WSC contract he was the one most tempted to ditch India. Now there are various theories about who made him reject the offer. MMHS in post #75 offered a theory based on 'Idols', others have read from different sources.
I believe Bedi, the then Indian captain was the one who stopped Sunny from jumping ship. Of course BCCI had a strong relationship with ACB those days, that must have helped the Indian captain force his decision on Indian players, especially the Bombay maestro.
We have seen many so called enmities in Indian camp like Dhoni-Gambhir/Sehwag, Kapil-Sunny, Ashwin-Bhajji, Dravid-Ganguly-Sachin etc. Some of them were real, some were bloated by the notorious Indian media. But often overlooked is the relationship between Sunny and Bedi who were great chums when they started, only for the relationship to go down the dumps. Even today the contrast between them is so obvious, Sunny the BCCI spokesperson who dare not go against his masters and Bedi, the outspoken anti-establishment outcast who regularly makes it known what he thinks of our administrators and direction of Indian cricket.
Gavaskar has always been this vindictive, selfish, money minded albeit professional cricketer (sorry for harsh words, I love Sunny the player) who taught his colleagues how to make money. He was the first Indian cricketer to appear in ads, Bollywood events, cricket exhos, book launches (also penned his own memoirs) besides being a trendsetter as far as brand endorsements was concerned. He himself admitted that he was trying to follow the path of his close buddy Vijay Amritraj who those days was the only globally renowned (tennis=global, not talking about small sports like hockey, squash, wrestling etc) South Asian sportsperson with multi-million dollars worth contracts. Sunny was a talented player but also very ambitious, a trait that wouldn't sit comfortably with other Indian cricketers of those days.
Life in India was simpler, we were growing very slowly, cricket wasn't a money spinner and the pros were happy representing the country with meagre salaries (didn't matter for Pataudi
). Some of them are on record saying that they used to ensure every match went to an extra day even if victory was in sight, just so that they could have 1 extra day's match fees. Match fees were on per day basis, so wrapping a 5 day match in 3 days meant losing 2 days worth fees. Bedi belonged to this old school of thought, he played for love of the game and for the nation, not for money. Very upright individual and someone who to this day truly embodies the spirit of cricket. He may sound cranky nowadays but remember his opinions haven't changed these last 5 decades meaning he believes what he says and there are no ulterior motives.
He would never tolerate a WSC style league where players could deflect from their countries. So he used his authority to pour water on Gavaskar's plans. The nature of his put-down is unknown but Bedi was a dominating guy and what he did has resulted in lifelong enmity with his once close friend (named his own son Gavas Inder Singh btw). Media circles in India labeled Sunny a 'traitor', who leaked that info or who was pulling the strings is best left to guess but Sunny was persuaded to drop his plans (he had already got a go ahead signal from Bombay Cricket Association) and stick to Indian cricket.
This is the sequence of events that followed:
1. After our loss in Pakistan (under Mushtaq Muhammad) Bedi was made scapegoat and sacked. Sunny was made the new test captain to face the Packer depleted WI (led by Alvin Kallicharan) at home. Chinnaswamy had taken over BCCI and was a close associate of Bombay circles. Sunny didn't speak a word to Bedi during that series and humiliated him at every opportunity. He was given 2-3 over spells from the wrong ends and then sent to fine leg/third man for the next 20 overs.
2. Over the next couple of series Bedi sat more in the bench while Dilip Doshi (SLA) became his replacement. That famous 1979-80 series at home where we beat Pakistan 2-0 didn't feature Bedi.
3. Then came our tour of NZ/Australia. Doshi was doubtful because of injury and selectors called back Bedi as stand by. Gavaskar went and talked them (chief selector Umrigar from Bombay lobby) out of that decision and forced Ravi Shastri's selection as replacement for Bedi. Shastri was selected as a bowler, he developed his batting much later, but somehow was given priority over Sardarji due to his Bombay links and for being a lapdog of Sunny. Doshi played that series carrying injury and did horribly (he later blamed Sunny saying he was forced to play with injury), we drew a brilliant series 1-1 but missed a fit and proper spinner.
4. Bedi called an interview a few days after the selection snub and announced retirement. Used some colourful language, called Sunny corrupt and Shastri a yes man in crude language. He also expressed relief at his decision and spoke at length about how playing under Gavaskar was torture, how he only cares about money, his terrible influence on Indian cricket etc. Pataudi was the editor and okayed the explosive interview.
5. 3-4 years later we toured Pakistan and got routed by Imran's men. Sunny was our captain during that series while Bedi was on the selection panel. It was Bedi who oversaw the sacking of Sunny and making Kapil Dev Indian captain in both formats, just a few months before the 1983 WC. Bombay lobby (under Wankhede-Salve duo) targeted the North Indian axis of Kapil-Bedi for removing their boy but we know how history unfolded
.
PS: Not targeting Mumbaikars or their cricket body, just stating facts and opinions the way I perceive. I may well be wrong in my assessment.
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and deserves a fitting tribute.
was from the same state as the sardar, Packer ran straight to the airport and took the immediate flight to Sydney with his tail between the legs.
, so not sure what you getting at.
Shame about the withdrawal, it'd have been imo better to play and beat the racist Saffers to prove that whites were not superior to brown or black people.
