We were young and impressionable in 1971. Field Marshal Manekshaw and Jagjit Singh Aurora became heroes but there were three others that became unforgettable. B S Chandrasekhar, Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Sardesai. We had to listen to the news in the morning to find out what had happened in the West Indies while we slept and invariably Sardesai had scored runs. It was Sardesai and Solkar after the top order had gone and now both are dead. It takes time for that to sink in.

He made 642 runs in that series, he hit three centuries and without him India would have lost that series. In the first test at Jamaica he took India from 75-5 to 387 and at Barbados from 70 for 6 to 347.

That romantic phase in 1971 may never have happened. As it turned out there was much more to come. In England, in 1971, India won at the Oval having to chase 173 to win. It seemed to take forever but Sardesai was there. His 40 was worth a century. To beat England in England, we believed, was impossible.

And he was a great Ranji Trophy batsman, an outstanding player of spin and a man who backed himself. Even though he was from Goa, and he never forgot that, he symbolised the tough Bombay cricketer, never giving an inch. I never saw him bat but just speaking to him I could imagine what it must have been.

He was never more than 10 seconds away from a strong opinion and that made him an extremely engaging personality. If you wanted a forthright no-nonsense view, you spoke to Dilip Sardesai. It is a gene that his son has inherited well.

... contd.