New Delhi: What happened 33 years ago is something cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar would to erase from his memories as he almost forfeited a test match against Australia at MCG.
Gavaskar was on 70, his highest score of a personally miserable series, when Dennis Lillee bowled a low-shooting off-cutter that trapped him in front. Umpire Rex Whitehead didn't hesitate in raising his finger; an indignant Gavaskar stood his ground, arms outstretched, pleading that ball had hit bat en route to pad. Lillee racing down the pitch and pointing in exaggerated contradiction at the master batsman's pad didn't exactly lighten his mood.
Gavaskar headed off, head shaking, but after 30 metres or so succumbed to his fury, retreated, grabbed batting partner Chetan Chauhan and marched in the direction of the players' gate. Chauhan - coming off a duck himself and within sight of a maiden Test century - grudgingly followed a few metres behind, like a crestfallen child not yet ready to go home.
India's team manager, Wing Commander Shahid Durrani, met them at the fence and pleaded for calm. At length Gavaskar disappeared, and Chauhan returned to the centre wicket with new batsman Dilip Vengsarkar for company.
former Australian captain Bob Simpson called Gavaskar's aborted protest an "unfortunate and indefensible act". On the newspaper's front page, chief cricket writer Peter McFarline wrote that India's captain had gone within 10 metres of forfeiting the Test, as under Law 20 (3) "a match shall be lost by a side which during the match refuses to play".
Gavaskar would reflect that "there has never been an unhappier incident in my career". As an opening batsman who averaged more than 51, his 118 runs from six innings in the three-Test series - in a tour that ground on and on from November 22 until February 11 - made his second of three visits to Australia one to forget.
There were some notable riders to the incident. Gavaskar's wicket was Lillee's 248th, equalling Richie Benaud's Australian record. When the hapless Chauhan drove him straight to Bruce Yardley at cover point 17 minutes later, he assumed the mantle of Australia's greatest-ever wicket-taker.
Gavaskar may well have had reason to rail against umpire Whitehead's decision - the accompanying clip features a sound as woody as axe hitting log. In his Age column, Simpson added that the decision was "just one step further towards the total collapse of a system that has served cricket so well".
