SACHIN TENDULKAR - THE LITTLE KNOWN - PART 1

During a match against Pakistan on his first trip, Sachin hit Mustaq Ahmed for 2 sixes in an over, this led to Abdul Qadir the mentor of Mustq Ahmed to taunt Sachin, “Bache ko kya maar rahe ho, hume maar ke dikhao”. Sachin didnt reply to Qadir, but when Qadir came to bowl, Sachin hit him for 6, 0, 4, 6, 6, 6. Yes 28 runs in an over and that was it !! The kid had arrived well and truly. The champion legspinner from Pakistan had been hit and his ego badly bruised.



During the same tour,he was struck flush on his nose by a Waqar bouncer, who was also on his debut, and was bleeding profusely…As the physio checked Sachin, Sidhu put an arm on Sachin to inquire if he would like to go off… Pat came the reply, “Paaji Main Khelenga !!”



In a charity match in Peshawar, the crowd jeered and taunted Sachin and came with posters citing,“Sachin go back and have milk”.



In the only ODI on that trip Sachin made a duck on debut… !!



During his school days,Sachin attended the MRF Pace Foundation to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, was unimpressed, suggesting that Tendulkar should focus on his batting instead.



During his young age, he argued and fought for McEnore with his colony friends who supported Swedish Bjorn Borg. Sachin sported a head-band, sweat-band and a tennis racquet showing his staunch loyalty towards his idol.



Till the age of 11, Tendulkar had not played with a cricket ball.



Once, during his boyhood, Sachin traveled all night for a game, reaching the destination at 3am and slept for one hour. Well before dawn, the coach was woken up and he asked him whether they could proceed to the ground because little Sachin wasn't happy with his game.



When after a hard session, Sachin became exhausted,his first coach Achrekar would put a one-Rupee-coin on the top of the stumps, and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin. If Tendulkar passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin. Tendulkar now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his most prized possessions.In his first two matches under Achrekar Sir, he made zero and zero.



He scored his first century at the age of 12. He was unbeaten on 96 overnight and couldn't sleep. He was impatient to get to my first ever century. Another reason for the impatience was that he had invited Achrekar sir to dinner at his home but he said the day Sachin scored a century, he would come. Next morning Sachin’s father took him to pay obeisance at a Ganpathi temple. He scored the century in the very first over. The first thing he told Achrekar sir on going back to the change room was he now had no way out but to come to his house.After he was introduced to Achrekar, Sachin got a fifty and a friend of Achrekar, who was umpiring that game, came and told him that this boy would play for India. He laughed at him and said that there were so many boys like Sachin in his net. But the friend insisted. 'Mark my words, he will play for India.'




Sachin spent most of his time at his uncle's house, just off this nursery of Bombay cricket as his house was at a good distance from the ground. Quite often, Sachin played all day."I don't get tired," he said, referring to them. "If you practise every day, you get used to it." Sachin used to arrive at Shivaji Park (place where he practised as a boy) at dawn and ask if the gardeners could be instructed to erect nets right away, failing which he could do it himself.Early in his carrier, captains used to send him to third man as he was a chatterbox with a head full of ideas.He is always first for practice sessions. After he is done with batting, he makes it a point to bowl in the nets till the last man comes off.He never comes late to the team bus, never comes late to any meeting - he is always five minutes ahead of time. Sachin begins to wear his gloves when he approaches the infield, to busy himself against distraction from the opposition.




When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads. "It was the greatest source of encouragement for me", said Sachin.Even when 15, Sachin was so famous that people kept calling him for some felicitation or the other. Once, he was asked to inaugurate a children's library!!. His coach hoped all this would stop so that Sachin could concentrate and work hard.Sachin was presented a Gunn and Moore by the Indian captain when he was 15.The same year, Sachin was disheartened when he did not receive the Best Junior Cricketer award. Sunil Gavaskar, the highest test run getter at that time, wrote to Tendulkar to tell him that several years earlier another youngster too had not got the award and that he didn't do too badly in Test cricket. For him the letter from his hero is a prized possession. Another great moment was a meeting with him where "… he told me that I should forget the past every time I go to bat. I should always remember that I have to score runs each time."




Everybody remembers the 326 not out in the 664-run gig with Kambli. Few remember the 346 not out in the following game, the trophy final and that he came back to ball the first ball. Everyone knows the centuries on debut in the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy at 15 and 16. Few know that he got them in the face of a collapse in the first instance and virtually out of partners in the second. Everyone knows his nose was bloodied by Waqar Younis in that first Test series, upon which he waved away assistance. Few remember that he struck the next ball for four.



Sachin scored a small matter of 1028 runs in five innings! A 178* in the Giles Shield and a sequence in the Harris Shield of 21*, 125, 207*, 329* and 346*!



Late Raj Singh Dungarpur, the chairman of selectors at a time when Sachin was about to play in Ranji semi-finals, walked up to Sachin and said, "I know there has been talk and there've been articles in the papers that you may go to West Indies, but I want to tell you that you won't be going because we still feel that it's too early and it's important for you to prepare for your SSC exams." He also said: "There'll be Irani Trophy, I'm sure you will be a part of it, and go out there and enjoy yourself, give your case, and good things will happen."He was selected for the tour of Pakistan after only one first class season..



After his debut test, Sachin doubted if he belonged here. He scored a half century in his second test match. That innings was the turning point of his life because after that he felt he did belong here.



THE BOY WHO MADE IT RAIN- Lismore, a place of board shorts and stubby coolers, on the far north hippie trail of New South Wales, was a strange location for Tendulkar's maiden first-class innings in Australia. . Lismore hadn't seen rain - the kind of rain that wet your shirt - in months. The Indians arrived on a Friday, November 1991, and all that morning it poured, drowning out the net session they'd scheduled. They moved indoors and it poured some more.
Fifteen hundred people saw the century, the great Alan Davidson among them. Davo was dumbfounded: "It's just not possible… such maturity." Tendulkar hit 82 that afternoon, when no one else passed 24, then 59 out of 147 in the second innings.Sachin looked to David Boon for advice when he was in Australia in 1991.He hadn't played many West Indian fast bowlers. He thought he should be picking up things from the top players in the world and wanted to get as much information as possible and become a better cricketer.In 1992, after his breathtaking century on a fast, bouncing pitch at Perth, Merv Hughes commented to Allan Border, "This little prick's going to get more runs than you, AB."



In 1992, at the age of 19, Sachin became the first overseas born player to represent Yorkshire.In 1994 India was playing in Auckland. Sachin was the vice-captain then and just before the ODI, he got to know that Sidhu was not fit as he had woken up with a stiff neck. He requested both Azhar(captain) and Ajit Wadekar(coach) to "Just give me one opportunity. I'm very confident as in the first 15 overs I can play some big shots. I feel I'll be able to deliver. And if I fail I'll never ever come to you again". They both agreed graciously, and he was able to go out and perform.



When Sachin had got it on the nose by Waqar, Ajit(his elder brother) had come to watch him for the first time and he could see him sitting in front of the dressing room. Sachin told that even before, he had had been hit on the nose in school cricket on bad practice wickets, an experience that had got rid of the fear.



Before the Test series against Aus in 1998, Sachin not only practiced with Laxman Sivaramakrishnan but with Nilesh Kulkarni and Sairaj Bahutule in Mumbai too. They gave him a lot of practice. He clearly remembers saying to his friends after he scored a double hundred for Mumbai against Australia that Warne had not bowled a single ball round the wicket and he knew that he will do it in this Test series.



A chronic back problem flared up when Pakistan toured India in 1999, with India losing the historic Test at Chepauk despite a gritty century from Sachin himself. The worst was yet to come as his father died in the middle of the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Tendulkar flew back to India to attend the final rituals of his father, missing the match against Zimbabwe. When he returned,Harsha saw him and approached him hesitantly. He couldn't see his eyes because they were shrouded by these huge dark glasses. He asked him if he would talk to him about coming back to play. He nodded his head and only briefly took the glasses off. His eyes were red and swollen(he had been crying copiously). For the interview he put them on, and once the camera had stopped rolling, admitted he didn't want to return, that his mind was all over the place, that he felt anchorless. It was the only time he didn't want to play for India but he had been forced back by his family, aware that only cricket could help him overcome his grief. When he got a hundred the next day and looked heavenwards, some other eyes were moist. Even in his grief there was resolve, for he wanted that century.He dedicated it to his Father.




According to Sachin, the century in a lost cause at Chennai in 1999 will haunt him for a long time.2003 was his worst year in test cricket, with an average of 17.25 and just one fifty.Tendulkar is the only player of the current generation to be included in Bradman's Eleven.