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Shyam Bhatia's special gift floors Sunil Gavaskar in Dubai

Bhatia surprised Gavaskar by gifting him a cricket bat during a special ceremony in Dubai

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Shyam Bhatia, Dubai’s famous collector of cricket memorabilia, celebrated the 50th anniversary of Sunil Gavaskar’s debut series in the West Indies.

Gavaskar, the first man in history to score 10,000 Test runs, scored 774 runs in his debut Test series against the Garry Sobers-led West Indies in 1971.

And Bhatia surprised his good friend by gifting him a bat during a special ceremony he hosted at his famous cricket museum in Dubai to celebrate the legendary Indian batsman’s golden jubilee of his landmark debut series.

“I knew he was coming to Dubai for a couple of days, so I planned to host this party for him. It was truly wonderful to have him with us to celebrate the occasion and we presented him with a beautiful bat,” Bhatia told Khaleej Times.

“I have known Sunil for 40 years. He was not just a great cricketer, he is a great human being as well. There will never be another Sunil Gavaskar!”

Gavaskar was ‘floored’ by Bhatia’s gesture.

“I am absolutely floored by Shyam’s gesture of having this for me, this memento that he has created. This is absolutely fantastic,” the former Indian captain said.

“We are very, very fortunate to have cricket lovers like Shyam because when you look at what he has done (to build the museum), this is absolutely mind-blowing,” he added.

“You know he's only thinking how to add to the museum, how to make the museum a little more colourful. You can see with what love and affection he has built his own thing. It's just amazing.”

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