Gauti gets married: Sardesai had preferred India over marriage, says his widower

Bipin Dani October 28, 2011 0

Gauti gets married: Sardesai had preferred India over marriage, says his widower

MUMBAI: Reacting to Gautam Gambhir’s decision to skip the Twenty20 International match against England scheduled for Saturday (Tomorrow) and getting married (to Natasha Jain) in the middle of the season, Nandini Sardesai, the wife of former India great, late Dilip Sardesai has said that players used to prefer teams over personal life in old days.

Dilip Sardesai told The Sports Encounter on Friday, “The players in older days could not afford the luxury of skipping matches. There was no money but the team could not be let down”.

“I married to him (Dilip) on 18th October, 1963, when Dilip returned from Hyderabad after the Moin Ud Dowla cricket tournament on 16th of October and on 20th October he had to leave for Anand to play the Ranji Trophy match vs Gujarat and scored a 100. We didn’t go for honeymoon because of his cricketing activities”, she added.

“Dilip was absent for his brother’s wedding too since he was playing outside Mumbai. There was commitment and pride in playing for the country and state association. The good old days!-hardly we see them now…”

Interestingly, Clyde Butts, the current chairman of the West Indies selection panel married during the middle of one of the Test match he participated, according to Philip Spooner, the media manager.

“There is the case of former West Indies off-spinner Clyde Butts who got married on the “rest day” of his Test debut back in 1985. The match against New Zealand was played at the Bourda ground in Guyana, Butts’ homeland”, Philip Spooner said exclusively to The Sports Encounter.