The last few weeks have been incredible for Team India as the Rohit Sharma-led side has remained unbeaten in the ongoing World Cup, winning its first six games.
Sachin Tendulkar, part of India’s 2011 World Cup-winning squad, has enjoyed the way the Men in Blue have dominated opponents. “Our team has been playing a different brand of cricket and I really enjoy this brand of cricket. It was a joy to watch them play and I am extremely proud and happy to see the way they have played,” Tendulkar said on Wednesday, on the sidelines of his statue unveiling ceremony.
With 12 points in its kitty and three more league games to go – the next against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday – India is almost through to the semifinals. “I won’t talk beyond this and nazar nahi lagaunga (to cast an evil eye). They know what to do and what the whole country is expecting from them. I won’t put pressure on them either. I know people have this tendency of talking things and then saying, ‘ koi pressure mat le na’ (Don’t take any pressure). It does not work that way,” he said.
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At a packed MCA Lounge, Tendulkar shared anecdotes from his playing days, and revealed that his preparation for the 2011 World Cup started in 2007. “I have heard that nothing happens ‘right now’. You can either have it right or you can have it now, so it does take time. My preparation for the 2011 World Cup started in 2007.”
Tendulkar thanked all his ‘non-striking partners’ and team-mates for backing him throughout his career. Reminiscing about his early years, Tendulkar said: “I was selected as a ball boy for the 1987 World Cup and Sunil Gavaskar invited me to the dressing room and meet a few players. I was 14 then and it was a huge thing.”
“After that, the very next year, I made my debut for Mumbai here in the Ranji Trophy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet Gavaskar at that time, but I remember that there was only one seat available in the dressing room. There were seven or eight India players in the playing XI, so when I walked into the Bombay (now Mumbai) dressing room, I placed my kitbag on a seat, which was vacant, in a far corner of the dressing room. I realised that it was SMG’s seat. So, I went out to bat and scored a hundred, and I wasn’t surprised, because that seat was used to not being occupied, while the crease was! So, I had no choice but to follow my hero,” Tendulkar reminisced.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah shared some interesting trivia about the Master Blaster. According to him, Tendulkar has batted in 364 days of a calendar, with May 1 as the only exception while the only scores (from 0-100) missing in his career were 75 and 58.
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Tendulkar also remembered his last game at the Wankhede Stadium in 2013. As the cameras panned on his mother that afternoon, it was difficult for Tendulkar, playing his last international match, to control his emotions and wait for the game to finish.
The iconic venue has been integral part of his career, and Tendulkar paid a fitting tribute to the Wankhede Stadium, saying: “The happiest day of my life was in 2011, when we lifted that (World Cup) Trophy.”
On April 2, 2011, India clinched its second World Cup title - after 1983 - and the Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan carried Tendulkar on his shoulders, making it one of the most memorable moments of Indian cricket.
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