Chetan Chauhan and I responsible for players’ tax exemption in India, reveals Sunil Gavaskar

“There's one thing that few players of my generation and the one immediately after that don't know is his contribution in getting tax exemptions for them. Both of us first met up with the late Shri R Venkataraman, who was the finance minister of the country then and requested him to consider a tax exemption for fees received for playing for India. In this aspect, I must add that it wasn't just for cricket but for all sportspersons who played for India. We explained how when we were junior cricketers we had to spend a lot of money on equipment, travel, coaches, etc when we had no income at all,” Gavaskar wrote, reported Cricbuzz.

“Shri Venkatramanji was most considerate and in a notification he passed a ruling that gave us 75% standard deduction for a Test match fee then an exemption on 50% of the tour fees which we received before leaving for a tour. His desire to help others manifested in him joining politics and right till the end he was a giver, not a taker.”

"Aaja, aaja, gale mil[come, give me a hug], after all we are in the mandatory overs of life" was the usual greeting of my opening partner Chetan Chauhan whenever we met over the last two or three years. The meetings were invariably at his beloved Ferozeshah Kotla ground where he was in charge of the pitch preparation. As we hugged I would say to him that "no, no we must have another century partnership" and he would laugh and then say "arre baba you are the century maker, not me".