Basil
Contributor
- Joined
- 6 Oct 2013
- Messages
- 4,888
- Reaction score
- 3,013
MUMBAI: He may have gone on to become the richest cricketer in the world, but as a 12-year-old kid, Sachin Tendulkar had become penniless after returning from a tour with the Mumbai Under-15 team.
Recounting the interesting episode at an event here on Tuesday, Tendulkar said: "I was only 12-year-old and was selected to play for Mumbai Under-15 team. I was excited, carried some money and we went to Poona (Pune) to play three matches and it started raining there, so I was hoping that the rain stopped and we got some cricket to play, so when I got my turn I was run out on four. I was only 12, I could barely run at a decent pace. I was disappointed and came back to dress room crying and after that I did not get another chance to bat.
"Because it had rained we had nothing to do the whole day, go out watch a movie, eat and without knowing how to spend money and how to equally pace myself and save money, I finished everything and when I came back to Mumbai by train there was not a penny in my pocket, I was carrying two big bags, we got off at Dadar station and from Dadar station I had to walk to Shivaji Park because I had no money in my pocket."
The retired maestro said that had banking been as customer-friendly back then as it is now, he would never have faced this problem in the first place. "Can you imagine if I had a phone in my hand, one SMS and my father or my mother would have transferred the money to my account and I could have travelled by cab," he reflected.
The 43-year-old recalled that he had a 'special connection' with the introduction of technology in cricket as he was the first batsman in international cricket to be adjudged run by the third umpire, when fielding great Jonty Rhodes found him short of the crease with a direct hit during the first India-South Africa Test in 1992 at Durban. "When it comes to technology, yours truly was the first one to be given out by the third umpire in 1992, I was given run out by the third umpire. Sometimes technology can't go your way. While fielding you need the right decisions from the third umpire, but not while batting," he quipped in jest.
Tendulkar also spoke about how much the things were different when he first came into the Indian team back during the tour to Pakistan in November 1989 and how the role of technology has changed in the Indian dressing room since then. "A lot of changes happened. When I started playing for 1989, we did not have a proper sponsor, so guys who had been around for a while they had T-shirts and trousers and all that, we on our first tour had limited resources of getting top clothing, so from there it all started. We were suddenly told that there is going to a computer in the dressing room which was 2002-03.
"I thought: 'What is a computer doing in the dressing room, computer is not going to teach you how to bat, but over a period of time we realised that planning and executing those plans was not left up to imagination. We could actually set up a projector and have all those data displayed on the screen and if we spoke about: 'Do not ball to this batsman in this area, because that is strong, it was not us 15 players imagining, it was actually there in front of us and those kind of things helped us in planning them and to be able to execute those plans, the thought process was clear," he reflected.
When Sachin Tendulkar had no money in pocket for a cab ride home - Times of India
Recounting the interesting episode at an event here on Tuesday, Tendulkar said: "I was only 12-year-old and was selected to play for Mumbai Under-15 team. I was excited, carried some money and we went to Poona (Pune) to play three matches and it started raining there, so I was hoping that the rain stopped and we got some cricket to play, so when I got my turn I was run out on four. I was only 12, I could barely run at a decent pace. I was disappointed and came back to dress room crying and after that I did not get another chance to bat.
"Because it had rained we had nothing to do the whole day, go out watch a movie, eat and without knowing how to spend money and how to equally pace myself and save money, I finished everything and when I came back to Mumbai by train there was not a penny in my pocket, I was carrying two big bags, we got off at Dadar station and from Dadar station I had to walk to Shivaji Park because I had no money in my pocket."
The retired maestro said that had banking been as customer-friendly back then as it is now, he would never have faced this problem in the first place. "Can you imagine if I had a phone in my hand, one SMS and my father or my mother would have transferred the money to my account and I could have travelled by cab," he reflected.
The 43-year-old recalled that he had a 'special connection' with the introduction of technology in cricket as he was the first batsman in international cricket to be adjudged run by the third umpire, when fielding great Jonty Rhodes found him short of the crease with a direct hit during the first India-South Africa Test in 1992 at Durban. "When it comes to technology, yours truly was the first one to be given out by the third umpire in 1992, I was given run out by the third umpire. Sometimes technology can't go your way. While fielding you need the right decisions from the third umpire, but not while batting," he quipped in jest.
Tendulkar also spoke about how much the things were different when he first came into the Indian team back during the tour to Pakistan in November 1989 and how the role of technology has changed in the Indian dressing room since then. "A lot of changes happened. When I started playing for 1989, we did not have a proper sponsor, so guys who had been around for a while they had T-shirts and trousers and all that, we on our first tour had limited resources of getting top clothing, so from there it all started. We were suddenly told that there is going to a computer in the dressing room which was 2002-03.
"I thought: 'What is a computer doing in the dressing room, computer is not going to teach you how to bat, but over a period of time we realised that planning and executing those plans was not left up to imagination. We could actually set up a projector and have all those data displayed on the screen and if we spoke about: 'Do not ball to this batsman in this area, because that is strong, it was not us 15 players imagining, it was actually there in front of us and those kind of things helped us in planning them and to be able to execute those plans, the thought process was clear," he reflected.
When Sachin Tendulkar had no money in pocket for a cab ride home - Times of India