Cream of world cricket arrive for Sunny’s b’day bash in London

Sunil Gavaskar, co-author of Sunny G Shyam Bhatia with Sachin and Anjali Tendulkar in London on Wednesday

Sunil Gavaskar's 75th birthday was celebrated in the presence of the cream of international cricket on Wednesday.

And to say the Bombay Brasserie restaurant near Gloucester Road tube station in Central London had cricket in the air would be an understatement.

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The group which played with and against Gavaskar comprised brother-in-law Gundappa Vishwanath, Clive Lloyd, Birmingham-based Mushtaq Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas and Geoffrey Boycott. The former England captain came along with wife Rachael despite being two weeks away from surgery to treat his throat cancer.

Sachin and Anjali Tendulkar, Sourav and Dona Ganguly, Ajit and Fatema Agarkar, Dinesh Karthik and Ashish Nehra were in attendance too, as was Mark Nicholas, the first-class player-turned television commentator, who is now the president of MCC. From Trinidad in the West Indies came Clifford Narinesingh, who wrote a book on Gavaskar in the early 1990s. Narinesingh was proud to say that he has known Gavaskar since 1971.

Amidst the celebrations, a book on Gavaskar written by this correspondent with Dubai-based cricket lover Shyam Bhatia titled Sunny G, was presented to Gavaskar.