I am not a ball to ball watcher – Sunil Gavaskar reveals why he never considered coaching

India’s great Sunil Gavaskar was undoubtedly one of the best batsmen to have embraced the game. Gavaskar was the first player to reach the 10,000 run mark in Test cricket and was one of the best players of his generation.

The Little Master used to open the innings and delivered against top teams like Australia and West Indies.

Gavaskar decided to hang his boots back in 1987 and then took up commentary in the second chapter of his life. The former Indian skipper revealed that he isn’t a die-hard ball-to-ball watcher of the game and thus he didn’t ever consider the coaching role.

Gavaskar feels it is crucial for a coach to observe every ball and make notes but he wasn’t an ardent watcher of every ball, he decided not to take up the coaching role.

“I’ve been a terrible watcher of cricket, even when I was playing the game. If I got out, I would be watching the match very intermittently.

I would watch for a while, then go inside the change room or read something or reply to letters etc. and then come out and watch again. So, I wasn’t the ball-by-ball watcher, like say GR Vishwanath is.

GRV or my uncle Madhav Mantri was a complete ball watcher. And if you want to be a coach or a selector, you’ve got to be a ball-by-ball watcher. And therefore, I never even thought about it… being a coach,” Gavaskar said on ‘The Analyst’ YouTube channel, in response to a query.

On the other hand, Gavaskar added that he shared notes and helped former players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman whenever they had any doubts regarding their batting technique.

“Having said that, I’ve had people coming up to me. Not the current lot, but say Sachin, Rahul Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag and Laxman.

So I’ve been very happy to exchange notes with them… whatever my observations are. So yes, I’ve been able to maybe help them somewhere down the line, but on a full-time basis, that’s not something I could do,” said the former India captain.

Sunil Gavaskar will be seen doing his commentary stint along with Dinesh Karthik in the World Test Championship final, which will take place at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton from June 18.