Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players‘We wore lipstick and had a centre parting’: Gavaskar recalls being fined by Sandip Patil
When Patil was appointed chairman of the Sunday club, Gavaskar revealed the former India all-rounder introduced a peculiar dress code that the players had to follow.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar narrated a funny incident when he was fined by Sandip Patil for not wearing a tie during a Sunday club meeting. The concept of Sunday club was introduced by a former English cricketer Norman Gifford, and the idea behind it was to organise a get together for the team which served as an ice-breaking session.
When Gavaskar was appointed the India captain in 1978, he organised a Sunday club of his own where members of the Indian cricket team would get together. When Patil was appointed chairman of the club, Gavaskar revealed the former India all-rounder introduced a peculiar dress code that the players had to follow.
“When Sandeep Patil was the chairman, absolutely ideal as he was such a fun-loving guy, he had a uniform where you had to come with a centre parting in your hair,” Gavaskar told Gaurav Kapur on his show 22 Yarns.
“If I recall correctly you came in with a white sock in your left hand and a black one in your right hand, not on your feet mind you. You came in with the shirt tied back to front or you wore a tie without a shirt.”
Gavaskar further stated how Patil tried to impose a fine on him but the rules of the Sunday club stated that if members of the team did not agree with the chairman, they could overturn his, in this case, Patil’s – decision. Gavaskar revealed how he was able to find a loophole in his former India teammate’s dress code and managed to get away.
“In that particular Sunday club, the chairman had the option to fine you for not having come dressed as you were told. If the rest of the team agreed, it would go through but the rest of the team could also contest,” the former India batsman said. “I remember that he had asked us to wear a tie, we were bare chested, had a centre parting with lipstick on, something like that. He asked me where my tie was. I told him that I have got my tie on, so what is his problem.
“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 were. 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.”
The fine collected would be used to get refreshments for the next Sunday Club meeting, Gavaskar said.
