Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar
(Photo source : cricketnext.com)

Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary cricket icon of India was made the ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ of Nepal’s tourism sector.

The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) offered the title to Gavaskar with the aim of promoting the tourism sector of the country.

Reciprocating the request made by Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board, Tek Bahadur Dangi, Gavaskar said that he accepted the proposal of being the Goodwill Ambassador of Nepal’s tourism and was very much delighted to do anything that he could do for Nepal.

Praising Nepal’s beauty and hospitality, he said that he found Nepal’s people fantastic and smiling right from the airport to the hotel and everywhere, and found no discrimination between ordinary tourists and celebrities in delivering hospitality.

“Nepal is the best place for relaxation in the world, and I am very delighted to take the good memories of Nepal that I have during my stay in Nepal,” said Gavaskar, addressing a press conference on Thursday in Kathmandu.

Impressed with the infrastructure for cricket, record-setting batsman Gavaskar said Kathmandu could be a good venue for sports tourism because of weather and people, a press statement issued by NTB said.

Gavaskar’s spectacular professional career began with a bang: in his Test debut series against West Indies (1971) he scored record 774 runs. He has had 81 first class centuries (or hundreds) and scored a total of 25,834 runs, including 10,122 runs in Test cricket (he was the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test).

In the 1980s Gavaskar dominated Indian cricket and became famous for his meticulous approach as well as his distinctive headgear. After his retirement in 1988, he became a commentator and columnist. He has also authored several cricket books and an autobiography, Sunny Days.