Sunil Gavaskar pauses speech mid-way to answer wife’s phone call

While delivering his speech to the audience, Gavaskar’s phone rang. While he did continue to speak for a bit, soon he went for his pocket to take out the mobile phone saying, ‘this must be my wife’. He then paused his speech and answered the call. “Let me just take it. Just to remind me that I shouldn’t speak too much,” he would say leaving the audience in splits.

The gesture instantly drew reaction from the audience with many going with a collective “awwww”. Soon the video went viral online. And speaking of the initiative to help the children, Gavaskar said: “Most of these children come from the interiors of the country, facing financial challenges and medical assistance is not always there for them. Our record is more than 99% success rate. When the surgeons come out to tell the parents that the operation’s been successful, the change in their from hopelessness and despair, to tears of joy, seeing that has given me more pleasure than scoring a double century. It’s been very fulfilling.”

Gavaskar spoke about young batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who had credited the batting great as an inspiration. “It makes me feel blessed that somebody who would not have even seen me play, or might have seen an odd grainy video from the early days, would come and say that. Youngsters today have so many things on their mind, but for them to see you in that capacity, is a blessing.”