When the Rest of the World XI took on the Australian side in 1971/72, three Indian cricketers in Bishan Singh Bedi, Farokh Engineer and Sunil Gavaskar were part of the former’s 17-member squad. With players across different countries not quite well-versed with each other, England spinner Norman Gifford organized a Sunday Club, which would offer a great opportunity for them to have some good informal interaction with each other.
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Six years later, when Gavaskar was appointed the Indian Test team captain in 1978, he organized a Sunday Club of his own in India, wherein it had a chairman who would come up with a dress code for the meeting.
The informal meeting that is was, was filled with moments of fun and banter amongst the players. Former Indian batter Sandip Patil was the chairman of one such meeting which took place at his house terrace, and as was the norm, he had come up with a dress code which was supposed to be followed.
Sunil Gavaskar hilariously trolled Sandip Patil by finding a loophole in his dress code
One part of the dress code required the individuals to arrive bare-chested with their ties on. However, the ‘Little Master’ arrived without the tie around his neck, and in fact had it under his shorts!
Thus, chairman Patil decided to fine Gavaskar for not adhering to the code, in accordance with the standard rule of the club. However, Gavaskar was quick to remind him that he had not specifically stated that the tie had to be worn around the neck, and hence decided to sort of reverse fine Patil with the unanimous consent of the rest of the players.
“He fined me stating – ‘Sunil Gavaskar is not dressed well, he has not worn a tie so he is fined’. I asked him why he was fining me and told that my tie was where my shorts are. It was under my shorts. I told him that he had never specified that the tie had to be worn on the neck. Then I turned it around and I asked rest of the guys that I had got this and that he had not mentioned that it had to be worn around the throat. So, because he has fined me wrongly, did they think that the chairman should be fined. Everybody unanimously agreed, so the chairman got fined,” Gavaskar hilariously remarked during the podcast.
Who kept the fine money?
Gavaskar later went on to reveal that the chairman of the club did not use the fine money for his own leisure and recreation, but would be used to get refreshments for the next Sunday Club meeting.
