I denied him a Ranji century: Gavaskar remembers football legend Chuni Goswami

While conveying his New Year wishes to everyone in Bengali, Gavaskar recounted his deep bonding with the city’s sporting fraternity and his association with Chuni Goswami as a cricketer.

Published : Apr 15, 2023 20:25 IST , KOLKATA - 3 MINS READ

Sunil Gavaskar at the inauguration of Chuni Goswami Gate at Mohun Bagan Ground in Kolkata Maidan.
Sunil Gavaskar at the inauguration of Chuni Goswami Gate at Mohun Bagan Ground in Kolkata Maidan. | Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI/The Hindu
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Sunil Gavaskar at the inauguration of Chuni Goswami Gate at Mohun Bagan Ground in Kolkata Maidan. | Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI/The Hindu

On a day that Mohun Bagan Club decided to dedicate its ornate entry gate to the memory of its legendary captain Chuni Goswami, the commemorative occasion was made special by the presence of one of the brightest luminaries of Indian sport, Sunil Gavaskar, who did the inauguration. The occasion coincided with the Bengali New Year’s Day, which traditionally marks the beginning of the new football season in the city.

While conveying his New Year wishes to everyone in Bengali, Gavaskar recounted his deep bonding with the city’s sporting fraternity and his association with Chuni Goswami as a cricketer. Goswami, who led the Bengal Ranji team to the final in 1972, had one century in his fairly long first-class cricket career. Gavaskar confessed that he was instrumental in “Chuni Da” not getting another.

“I had the good fortune of playing against him in the Ranji Trophy where I must confess, so many years down the road, that I had him dismissed with a catch which was not there. I had taken the catch on the half-volley in the slips when he was batting at 96. You generally signal it as not a catch to the umpire, but before I could do it, one of my senior players standing in the gully rushed to hug me and said ‘Sunny don’t do it he (Goswami) is batting well,’” Gavaskar made the revelation to big applause from the gathering of former players, fans and members of Mohun Bagan.

“I walked back denying Chuni Da a 100, that too against Mumbai. I told that to Chuni Da many years later but he accepted that in good spirit saying ‘Maybe it was not in my fortune to get a 100 against you’. That was the greatness of Chuni Da and I feel honoured to be inaugurating the gate named after one of the biggest icons of Indian football,” he added. Chuni Goswami passed away on April 30 2020 at the age of 82.

The club later organized the traditional ritual of ‘Bar Pujo’ (worshipping the crosspiece of the goalpost), which was attended by former players and fans. Longstanding rival East Bengal also organized a similar invocation of the football gods on its ground, with State Sports Minister Aroop Biswas starting off the celebrations.

Scores of other football clubs playing in different divisions of the Calcutta Football League followed the same tradition with the usual fanfare that brings together the huge fraternity of Kolkata football in a collective celebration of their favourite sport.

The All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey, who was present at the East Bengal function, said that the national federation has decided to bar foreigners from playing in the state leagues and also in the second division I-League.

“We have seen a lot of good Indian strikers in recent times like Sishir Ghosh and Dipendu Biswas, who came up from Calcutta Football League, but there is a crisis of good strikers in the present time. One of the prime reasons behind this is that all the Indian clubs use overseas players in specialised positions. We need to allow our players to have enough match practice to better their game. Hence we have decided not to allow foreign players in the state leagues, I-League 2, and some of the cup tournaments,” Chaubey said.

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