How Kishore Kumar Mesmerised Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar And Others

Kishore Kumar has mesmerised not just several generations of music lovers but also cricketers of the past and present day who are smitten by the legendary singer, who would have celebrated his 87th birthday, if he were alive, on Thursday.

The Khandwa-born musician, who not just sang but also acted, directed and produced several movies across languages, died at the age of 58 on October 13, 1987, but not before leaving his mark.

His songs like 'Roop Tera Mastana', 'Aane Wala Pal', 'O Mere Dil Ke Chain' among several others are still cherished and sung regularly.

Few former cricketers like Sanjay Manjrekar, Virender Sehwag and Sunil Gavaskar have expressed how they would listen to Kishore Kumar songs to relax and also to maintain concentration.

"To keep negative thoughts away, I used to sing a lot of songs while batting. Singing used to keep me from getting distracted. I used to sing the golden songs of Kishore Kumar," Sehwag, who retired in October 2015, said in March 2016.

"My partners (at the crease) did not even know I was singing because when we used to meet in the middle, we would talk about the game."

Sehwag would also crooon even as recently as the Cricket All-Stars series in the United States where the opening batsman was heard singing 'Chala Jaata Hoon' while playing for Sachin Tendulkar's Blasters team at Houston while facing former India teammate Ajit Agarkar.

Former middle-order batsman Manjrekar is known among his fraternity to have a flair for singing. He had released a musical album after retiring as well.

"I have always had an attraction for Bengali songs. I used to worship Kishore Kumar. I have heard a lot of his Hindi songs. Later on, was amazed to hear his Bengali songs," Manjrekar had said.

Gavaskar, on the other hand, has also confessed that he is a Kishore Kumar aficionado. The former India skipper had sung a Marathi song 'He jeevan mhanje cricket'.