“I had a better technique than Gavaskar”

"There is no question that Sunny was a fantastic batsman. People love to make comparisons. And Sunil and I have been compared very often, perhaps because we were similar in many ways — we batted right-handed, opened the innings, had a great appetite for runs, hated to give our wickets away and possessed good technique," Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott said.

"As our records show, Sunil played more matches, scored more runs and centuries than me, but in terms of technique, I consider myself superior to Sunil even if by just half a percentage point," he added.

"What a great sight it was to watch Gavaskar bat. Pace bowlers could never really dominate him. That’s why I rate him as the best opener of my era," former umpire and his Yorkshire teammate Dicky Bird said.

"And mind you, I have seen quite a few in my time. He would be in my World XI along with Barry Richards — I have mentioned that in my latest book," Bird said.

"Needless to say that my Yorkshire hero Geoffrey Boycott did not like it after going through the name of my World XI.

"I told him, of course he was also a great player but Sunil and Barry were marginally better than him. He did not take it sportingly," he said.

"He had enormous powers of concentration, an excellent technique and used to time the ball well. He always seemed to have extra time to play a stroke. That’s the hall mark of a great player," he said.