Sunny's ground zero is sonny's garden of Eden

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI\KOLKATA: Is he a Kolkatar chele or a a Mumbai mulga ? Actually, Rohan Gavaskar—named after West Indian great Kanhai —is both. His <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">janmabhoomi </span>is Mumbai, his <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">karmabhoomi </span>is Kolkata.<br /><br />When he debuted for India on Sunday, he became the latest in a long line of ''exiles'' who couldn''t get into the Mumbai XI, but made for the national squad.<br /><br />Praveen Amre, Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan, the controversial Abhijit Kale all figure on that list, and Gavaskar Sr almost did so too.Peeved at the Ranji selectors'' refusal to reward his university cricket scores in the late 60s, he thought of moving to East Bengal or Mohun Bagan.<br /><br />Luckily, the selectors saw the Sunny light of day. The rest is history — including the barracking Sunny and his wife Marshneil received at Eden Gardens in 1983-84.<br /><br />Sunny vowed to never play in the city again. Time healed the wounds and revived warmer memories. Like Gavaskar Jr treading on the hallowed Eden turf as a child, holding 12th man Karsan Ghavri''s hand during a drinks interval. When Rohan couldn''t find a place among the 40 Mumbai probables in 1996-''97, he moved to Kolkata. Today, he lives in a building called — we kid you not — ''Sunny Towers''. And often captains Bengal''s Ranji team.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">No wonder everyone from Salimbhai, the veteran waiter at CC&FC (Calcutta Cricket & Football Club), to Ghoshda of the Winning Streak bar were ecstatic when he took that great caught-and-bowled. They cheered in Mumbai too. Friends at Bombay Scottish (he captained the soccer team, since the school didn''t play cricket) fondly recalled a down-toearth boy, batting in his backyard with grandma Meenal.<br /><br />Schoolmate Peter Hakim remembers Rohan having diverse friends like swimmers Warren Perreira and Vishal Kapoor and squash player Akhil Behl. When classmate Ekta Puri asked Rohan who his father was, she couldn''t believe his reply.<br /><br />"And my dad is Kapil Dev,"she retorted. Father and son have only played against each other once — in a singlewicket tournament. Sunny won. Today, Rohan may just want a rematch.</div> </div>