XtraTime Web Desk: Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar will be celebrating his 47th birthday on Friday (April 24) without any fanfare because of the current situation in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak. The master blaster has decided to keep the celebrations low key as a mark of respect to the medical fighters who are on the frontline fighting the dreaded pandemic. We shift our focus to an incident when Tendulkar wasn’t in a peace of mind. As much so that he was even contemplating retiring from the game. But a phone call from West Indian legend Sir Viv Richards prompted him to change his decision to retire.
The loss against Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup opener is still considered to be one of lowest points in Indian cricket. India had to make an early exit from the World Cup, courtesy their loss to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stages. Tendulkar himself managed to score just 64 runs from 3 matches.
The entire country was stunned in disbelief following the loss at the hands of then minnows Bangladesh. Nobody had expected this debacle. The media sharpened its knives. The public demanded answers. Stones were pelted at cricketers’ homes.
Tendulkar after returning back home confined himself to his room. He stayed aloof from the outside world for almost a week. News broke that Sachin was contemplating retiring from the game. It was during this time he got a call from a gentleman in Antigua. West Indies batting legend Sir Viv Richards was on the other side of the phone call. The discussion took for almost 45 minutes following which Tendulkar decided to keep playing for the country.
Tendulkar’s first meeting with Sir Viv was during the tour of Australia in 1991-92. He and Sanjay Majrekar were in the hotel lobby at Adelaide. They saw a guy with a cap coming out of the cab and Tendulkar recognized immediately it was Sir Viv Richards, his idol.
Tendulkar in his autobiography ‘Playing It My way’ described the incident. “I’ve seen him somewhere before.”
As he got closer I said,”I don’t believe it – that’s Viv Richards!”
As Richards headed to his room, Tendulkar turned to Manjrekar and told him he wanted to meet his hero. Both of them went to the reception and found out Richard’s room number. Tendulkar asked Majrekar to make the call to his (Viv Richards) room since he has played against him in the series in 1989. They were told by the Antiguan to come to his room. That was how a teenage Tendulkar met his batting hero for three minutes only. Both Tendulkar and Sir Viv carried their friendship and still have the same respect for each other till date.
The telephonic conversation with Sir Viv gave a new lease of life to the Mumbaikar. Sachin looked a different cricketer since as he was able to concentrate more on his batting. He was also relieved of the burden of captaincy. The master blaster went on with his career and eventually lifted the World Cup trophy in front of the home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 2011.