For nearly two decades, Sunil Gavaskar was synonymous with Indian cricket. One of the greatest players to have played the game, the ‘Little Master’ made the Indian masses fall in love with the game.

When Gavaskar stopped playing, he held multiple world records. He was the all-time leading run-scorer in the longest format, with 10,122 runs in 125 Test matches. Back then no other batter had breached the three-figure mark more than Gavaskar, who crossed the milestone 34 times during his glorious career.

Dec 28, 1983 - Sunil Gavaskar bettered Sir Don Bradman (29 Test hundreds) by scoring his 30th hundred against WI in Chennai #ThisDayThatYear pic.twitter.com/nxQFgD5Scl

Apart from giving us countless memories to cherish, inspiring the next generation of players to play cricket was perhaps the biggest contribution that Gavaskar made to Indian cricket.

From Sachin Tendulkar to Sourav Ganguly to Rahul Dravid, Gavaskar was the reason why most of these cricketers took up the sport. The batting maestro gave the countless budding cricketers a self-belief that they could also play at the highest level and succeed.

Celebrating 50 years of Sunil Gavaskar's Test debut

The cricketing world paid tribute to the legendary former India Captain Mr. Sunil Gavaskar on the occasion of his 50th anniversary of his Test debut for India. @Paytm #INDvENG

Full video https://t.co/k97YiyvcmR pic.twitter.com/za4Soq0yMh

Gavaskar’s last international appearance came way back in November 1987 when he featured in an ODI game against England at his home ground in Mumbai.

It is widely believed that the batting legend retired from the game in 1987 but according to Gavaskar that was not the truth.

© Twitter BCCI

What if I tell you Gavaskar is still an active cricketer? Yeah I know you guys will say that I have gone completely nuts and am uttering complete nonsense.

But believe me that’s the truth, I am not making this up. The former India skipper, in one of his interviews, had himself made this shocking revelation that he has yet to announce his retirement.

© Twitter BCCI

Speaking on Sports Tak last year, the ‘Little Master’ said that he hadn’t “officially retired” yet and shared an interesting story that gave the people the false impression that he had hung up his boots.

In 1987, Gavaskar was playing a first-class match at the iconic Lord’s and was unbeaten on 80-85 odd runs at stumps. This whole confusion started when he attended the press conference at the end of day’s play.

“No, I didn’t announce my retirement. I was asked by an English reporter in a press conference how important it was to score a century at Lord’s when I was unbeaten around 80-85. I told him that ‘since it was my last match, I would love to score a hundred, the venue didn’t matter at all’,” Gavaskar said in an interview.

“Honestly speaking, it’s 2021 and I haven’t officially announced my retirement yet. I have never given a letter to anyone. You can ask the BCCI whether I had made official retirement in 1987-88."

© Twitter BCCI

“I only told the selection committee that I would be unavailable in the future. But not being available didn't mean I had retired. Till now I have not given my official retirement letter,” he added.

© Reuters

Many of us who weren’t fortunate enough to watch Gavaskar bat live, have grown up fantasising about an alternate universe where we could see the Little Master open the innings with Master Blaster.

Well guess what, if not for this confusion, we could have seen this fantasy turn into reality. What a sight it would have been!

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