Former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar talked about the infamous incident in Melbourne 1981 when he decided to walk off the field along with his opening partner after the Australians asked him to ‘get lost’.
Gavaskar clarified that it wasn’t his leg-before dismissal rather Australian players’ ‘get lost’ call that prompted him to walk off the field.
The incident mapped as a Dennis Lillee in-cutter delivery caught Gavaskar on the pad in front of umpire Rex Whitehead. Gavaskar, protesting that the ball had hit his bat first was shown the index finger signalling him out. But the Indian opener was adamant on his stance and decided not to leave the field.
“The misconception is that I was upset at the lbw decision," Gavaskar told 7Cricket.
"Yes, it was upsetting. But the walk-off happened only because, as I had gone past Chetan (Chauhan) on the way to the change-rooms, the Australians had given me a spray. They told me to get lost, which is where I've come back and asked Chetan to walk off with me."
Watch: Sunil Gavaskar walks out of MCG in 1981
As he reluctantly started to leave, Lillee reportedly made one comment too many and the Indian snapped, returned to the crease and instructed fellow opener, Chetan Chauhan, to walk off the pitch with him.
Chauhan, who had little to no clue and zero say decided to walk off along with Gavaskar towards the boundary rope where they met team manager Shahid Durrani and assistant manager, Bapu Nadkarni.
"I got an inside-edge as you can see from the forward short leg fielder. He hasn't done anything, he hasn't moved.”
“Dennis is telling me, "It hit you there," and I'm trying to say, "No I hit it. And now you see, I've asked Chetan to walk off with me," said the former India captain narrating the incident on a show where it was played out for him.
In his earlier interviews, Gavaskar has said that he regretted the decision to leave the field in such a controversial manner.
