Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday paid tribute to coach Ramakant Achrekar. (Source: Twitter)
Sachin Tendulkar and Ramakant Achrekar are two of the most famed student-teacher combination known in the country. On Tuesday, on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, the Master Blaster went down memory lane to share an anecdote of the moment when he learnt the biggest lesson of his life from Achrekar and it came in the form of a scolding at Wankhede Stadium.
Long before his debut in 1989, Sachin needed the mentoring of two men who provided constant support to him – his brother Ajit and coach Achrekar. A prankster in his youth days, Sachin would get himself into trouble a lot and would be brought back to line by the two men. He recalled one incident which is still etched in his memory after all these years.
“Back in my school days, I used to play only for the junior team and our senior team was playing the Harris Shield finals at the Wankhede Stadium,” said Tendulkar in a video posted on Twitter as a tribute to Achrekar on Teachers’ Day. “And our coach Ramakant Achrekar sir had organised a practice match for me. He had told me to go there after school and bat at number four. He said he had spoken to the captain and you would not need to field. That used to be my training. That was important because you needed to figure out your game there and figure out how to score runs in the middle.”
“But I left all of that and sat at the Wankhede watching the Harris Shield final, cheering the senior team, clapping. After the match, I saw Achrekar sir and I thought it would be good to wish him. He asked me how many runs I got in the match and I told him I never went to play it because I wanted to cheer the senior team and clap for them.”
“Then he scolded me a lot in front of everybody and said I did not need to clap for others. He said I should take care of my own game and do something so that one day, the world can clap for you.”
“That was the biggest lesson of my life. After that day, I never missed another match,” he added.
Years later, Sachin returned to fulfill his dream of winning the World Cup at the same Wankhede Stadium and also played his last Test at the same venue in Mumbai.
