October 12, 2013 1:13:41 am
Many winters ago in November,when Sachin Tendulkar took guard on his debut international match on Indian soil here,he had already made a reputation for himself as a young prodigy. With two half-centuries against Pakistan in Faisalabad and Sialkot and a 88 against New Zealand in Napier and a maiden century (119) against England in Manchester,Tendulkar had already build a huge fan following. The match versus Sri Lanka on November 23,1990 was played at Sector 16 Cricket stadium here.
The teenager,all of 17 then,was the junior most at that time in the company of veterans such as Kapil Dev,Manoj Prabhakar,Navjot Singh Sidhu and Ravi Shashtri among others. The team was staying at Government-owned Hotel Shiwalik in Sector 17,located barely at a walking distance from the cricket stadium. Even though Tendulkar failed to impress with the bat,making just 11 runs,his fans cheered for him.
