India great Sachin Tendulkar was flooded with a rush of memories and a tinge of nostalgia as he regaled the audience with snippets from his playing days in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Talking about the time when he came into the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team in 1988, the batting maestro recollected the strength of their line-up.
“Opening we had Lalchand Rajput, at one down there was Sanjay Manjrekar, No 4 there was Dilip Vengsarkar and at 5 there was Ravi Shastri, then Chandrakant Pandit and Raju Kulkarni. So there were about seven India players in our team,” Tendulkar added.
The Mumbaikar spoke in vivid detail when asked about his memories from his 200th and farewell Test match at the iconic Wankhede against the West Indies led by Darren Sammy. Images from the famous game played out on the big screen and the host Prasanna asked Tendulkar to share his thoughts about the historic day.
“I remember before the series began and the venues were yet to be announced, I made a request to then Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Mr Srinivasan that I would like the last match to be played at Mumbai. In my entire career, my mother had never watched me play live in a stadium and I wanted her to experience that in my last match. My mother’s health was not the best at the time and she couldn’t walk as such and it was only at the Wankhede where she could have played. I’m thankful to the BCCI for making my wish come true and the match became very emotional for me because of that,” he added.
Vada Pav effect
Tendulkar recalled an incident of how how Mumbai’s most loved snack, Vada Pav, was relished by all his team-mates in the Ranji team in the mid-90s.
“I remember once one of our Ranji team-mates had brought his tiffin box to the practice session and somehow it was so delicious and smelt good that the rest of us ensured we had polished it off. And when he found that his tiffin was emptied without much ado, he was not very pleased and mumbled that whoever has taken the snack would have stomach issues owing to his curse. It was hilarious to be in that situation and we still talk about all that after so many years,” he added .
