The cricketing icon turns 50 on Monday, and in honor of the milestone, he recently spent the afternoon having lunch with a few reporters.
The boy-turned-legend Sachin Tendulkar has been a favorite subject for the current generation of Mumbai journalists who have spent much of their careers covering him. They have followed his life and career attentively from the time he started learning cricket at Shivaji Park to the present day, through all of its ups and downs and major and minor milestones.
On Friday, the journalists at the Cricket Club of India covered yet another important event in Tendulkar’s life. The cricketing great turns 50 on Monday, and in honor of the milestone, he spent the afternoon having lunch with a few reporters. Tendulkar reflected on his career and shared anecdotes from his own perspective.
He recalled his first interview from 1986, when he was accompanied by some delicious bun maska. Sunil Warrier conducted my very first interview. I was completely unprepared for an interview. Tendulkar recalled, “I was eating bun maska with my brother at an Iranian eatery in Shivaji Park.
When Prasanna Sant, the event’s host and commentator, mentioned Tendulkar’s half-century total, the cricket legend smiled and said, “This is the slowest fifty I have scored in my life.”
Tendulkar also recalled the newspaper articles written about him after he scored his first hundred while playing cricket at school. Even though they featured my performance, they didn’t publish a photo of me. I took offense when my teammates and friends reminded me that a picture is taken whenever someone gets a perfect score. Two days later, my entire family stayed inside out of shame after seeing my image in a proper story.
Senior reporter H Natarajan started the afternoon off with a story about Tendulkar’s first hundred in the Irani Cup, which took place at the Wankhede Stadium. The security guard at the stadium didn’t even notice that his older brother, Ajit, was in attendance. The cricket legend was unsurprised by the event. My siblings and I never introduce ourselves with the last name Tendulkar. He explained, “It’s simply Ajit.
When the No. 9 hitter, Venkatapathy Raju, was removed with Tendulkar 11 short of his century, Gursharan Singh showed incredible bravery by coming out to bat with a shattered finger. Gursharan fought through the agony to keep going and get Tendulkar to the magical century milestone.
After that, we went to New Zealand to play several games in 1990, and Gursharan was on the team. I told him I’d play in his benefit match no matter where I was (including the moon), anytime he scheduled it. I’m happy to say that I kept my word.
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