He knew how to manoeuvre Virender Sehwag‘s mind to get the best out of him and could tell Yuvraj Singh that “he will matter when it matters,” as Sachin Tendulkar always believed that partnerships grow through trust. Cricket’s highest run-scorer in Tests and ODIs was on Thursday present at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Vimarsh Shrinkhala event where eminent personalities share their life’s journey with people. Tendulkar was a personal guest of President Droupadi Murmu and he presented his signed Indian Test jersey to her. The batting icon was accompanied by wife Anjali and daughter Sara.
He spoke about how sport treats everyone equally.
“You might be in good form but someone else is not and someone else is in good form and you are not. As a team you need to stick by each other during good and bad times. You need to trust your partner,” Tendulkar said.
He regaled the audience with anecdotes from his playing days.
Tendulkar said that each team has players with different facets and one needs to understand them to extract the best out of them.
“With Sehwag, he would do opposite of what I wanted him to do. So I would tell Viru if I wanted him to defend for a few overs, I would tell him ‘Viru go and start blasting the bowlers and hit big sixes’. Viru would then say ‘No paaji, I think I should defend for four overs and then try hitting sixes’,” Tendulkar recalled.
“I had to say the opposite to get the best out of Viru. I would smile and I knew I got what I wanted,” he said.
Similarly, he recollected how Yuvraj seemed a little low on energy before the start of the 2011 World Cup and back then he had no inkling that he would be detected with cancer after the mega event.
“I called Yuvi for dinner and asked him why he looked a bit down on energy. He said, paaji, I am not timing the ball well. I told him to forget about batting and concentrate on fielding. Set some fielding goals. I told him, ‘Yuvi, you will matter when it matters’, and the spring in his strides was back,” Tendulkar said.
The cricket icon spoke about trusting the partner and cited the example of Rahul Dravid picking his cues during a Test match against New Zealand when Chris Cairns was getting the ball to reverse.
“Me and Rahul were batting and Chris Cairns was reversing. Because of the soil, at times, you can’t see the shiny side of the ball.
“Cairns was beating us and the match was critical. I told Rahul, ‘If we can then I would put bat in one hand and you gauge the movement’. When Cairns went cross seam, I held the bat in the middle.” Tendulkar has been to the Rashtrapati Bhavan on multiple occasions to receive awards but this was the first time he came as a guest of the President.
“Honourable President and me talked about the World Cup hockey in Bhubaneswar, which I saw sitting alongside my friend Dilip Tirkey. We spoke about food in Odisha. As I walked through the corridors of Rashtrapati Bhavan, I saw portraits of our freedom fighters adorning the walls. It gave me goosebumps,” he said.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, he amassed 15,921 runs in Tests and 18,426 runs in ODIs.
Tendulkar, who was conferred the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award in 2014, also holds the record for the most international centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs).