Naughty, Young Sachin

by Veena Gabriel

Yes, it is unbelievable but true. The sober, cricket icon was a normal, naughty young school boy who when introduced to a new boy in school had only one thought in his mind, "Will I be able to beat him up?'. There was always a ruckus going on in the break time.

sachin tendulkar X8vNk 17022

These thoughts were shared by his very first cricket eleven made up of his friends from the neighbourhood. They all belonged to Sahitya Sahwas, the apartments for the literary inclined. Sunil Hershe was his senior.

Another team mate shared the weakness of spinning yarns of the little Master.As per Satyajit Anekar, once Sachin cut his finger,and instead of giving the real reason, spun a yarn that how a helicopter was flowing on top of his house and he was hurt when he tried to touch it. As per Sachin, he bled buckets.

Hershe also shared that Sachin was a great fan of John McEnroe and tried his hand in tennis before turning to cricket. Hershe was the first captain under whom Sachin played the first cricket match with soft ball. He also recalls that Sachin was not good academically but a great fan of outdoors and Laxmibai used to run after him to feed him.

The decent,young man aware of his duty towards the underpriviledged even at such young age always used to share his meals with the son of the colony watchman, Ramesh Pardhe, who was also a good friend.

Ramesh recalled as to how Sachin took him to the terrace and after dipping the ball in water asked him to bowl. That way because of the marks made by wet ball on the rooftop he could see whether he had middled the ball correctly.

Sachin had a fetish for Band-aid. A tiny nick and he would be rushing for a band-aid. He was expert at applying it with one hand.

Once he started playing cricket and joined Shardashram High School, everything started to change. His life became busier and busier. He may no longer live in his childhood house but the memories will always be there for him and for his first eleven cricket team