Polly told me to take the first few runs safely: Gavaskar

Mumbai, Nov 8 (UNI) Sunil Gavaskar, who was the one who broke most of the batting records set by Polly Umrigar, today in his tributes to the all time great of Indian cricket, said that he learned a lot of lessons from Umrigar.

Speaking to reporters after paying his last respects to Umrigar at the Parsi Tower of Silence, Gavaskar said ''I have learnt so much from him that I can't pinpoint one particular thing. He once told me that I try and take my first run too early. He told me to take at least the first few runs safely.'' Gavaskar said that though Umrigar had achieved so much in cricket he hardly spoke about his feats.

''The only time he spoke about his cricket was when discussing strategies on how to get people out. Even that was a great learning experience,'' said the man who was the first to scale cricket's Mount Everest of 10,000 Test runs.

Meanwhile, Umrigar, who died yesterday at home is to be cremated later today.

UNI GS ADG AY RAI1705