Sachin Tendulkar as 8216;Fundulkar8217;

False Alarm

Though he has always called me Sir,Sachin and I are extremely close and considered each other family always. At times he took that closeness to another level altogether. I remember suffering a heart ailment during the Australasia Cup in 1994 at Sharjah. I had even spent a few days in hospital. And by the time we reached the finalwhich we went onto winI had decided to quit as manager of the team. I hadn8217;t yet informed everyone in the team,but sent a bunch of circulars to the press-box,announcing my resignation. Sachin was batting at that time,and he was told about my decision to quit after he got out. He simply stormed into the press-box,collected the circulars one-by-one and brought them back but not before announcing that I wasn8217;t retiring and it was a false alarm as Sir hadn8217;t even conferred with him about it.

Birthday Blues

This was during our tour to New Zealand in 1994. I didnt think anyone would remember my birthday on April 1. I was quietly having a drink with Rajan Bala,the late journalist and went back to my room and changed into my pyjamas by around 11.30. There was a knock on the door,and a very nervous and distressed Sachin Tendulkar informed me that Kapil Dev had taken ill all of a sudden and wanted to see me immediately. I could almost see Sachin8217;s eyes watering up,so I was even more worried. He literally dragged me to Kapil8217;s room,which was on the same floor,opened the door and pushed me in. I was taken aback as the whole Indian team was in the room,waiting for me with a huge cake. And they had arranged a bigger surprise for me,as a belly-dancer turned up at midnight,and I was forced to dance with her in my pyjamas.

Miss-ing identity

We were all at a function arranged by the organisers during the Hero Cup in 1993. And there was this overenthusiastic girl who wouldn8217;t leave me unless I introduced her to the late MAK Pataudi,who was present there. Mr. Pataudi was busy with a few other guests,and the lady wasn8217;t satisfied till I finally broke through and made the introduction. I had to give her company for close to an hour,and I didn8217;t know that Sachin and Vinod Kambli had been observing me from a distance. Later that night,it was around 11.30,the two led by Sachin,knocked on my door,pushed me aside and stormed into my room. They started breaking open all doors from the closet to the bathroom,not paying heed to my outcries. I had no clue why they were doing this,though it looked like they were searching for something. I asked them politely about what they were looking for. And pat came the reply from Sachin. We saw you spending a lot of time with that lady in the evening,and we are sure she is in here somewhere. Where are you hiding her? he said. And then all three of us burst out laughing.

Sardar Joke

Sachin loves cracking Sardarji jokes,and there is one in particular,which he loves narrating. I have heard it from him a number of times,but on each occasion I pretend like I8217;m hearing it for the first time to humour him. He never tires of repeating it though. It goes as follows: A sardarji once goes to a shop to buy a fridge. The shop-keeper however calls him a Sardar and refuses to sell him the fridge. Offended the sardarji then returns to the shop in a number of different garbs but still isn8217;t sold the fridge. Eventually he loses his cool,and demands to be told why the shopkeeper doesn8217;t want to sell him the fridge. The shopkeeper calls him a sardar again,and tells him the reason is simplethe fridge that the sardarji wants to buy is actually a washing-machine.

Venkatapathy Raju

Not many people know that even the great Sachin Tendulkar was dropped once from the playing XI and that too for not wearing spikes in practice. It was the 1989-90 season and we were touring New Zealand. The incident happened ahead of our match in the tri-series against Australia.

Bishan Bedi was our coach and he introduced a rule that everyone would have to wear half spikes or full spikes during practice. Sachin went to the net,wearing rubber studs and Bishan paaji,the hard task master that he was,promptly announced that Sachin would be dropped for the next match. Sachin was very young and was in awe of Bishan paaji. He requested me to tell the coach that he didn8217;t do it deliberately. It was an honest mistake. But Bishan paaji didn8217;t soften his stand and we played the match without Sachin and lost.

Kris Srikkanth

Sachin made his debut during the Pakistan tour in 1989. As a 15-year-old he was very shy and quiet. During that tour we used to have a get together every Sunday. We called it Sunday Club. One day I told Sachin that he would have to wear the makeup of an old man for a Sunday Club party. He was taken aback and asked me from where would he get a wig and false beard.

He was pretty tense and we had a hearty laugh when he came to the party in disguise of an old man. Another incident of that tour is still etched in my memory. We were playing a one-dayer. Sachin was facing Abdul Qadir. Before the over, the great leg spinner threw down the gauntlet,saying that if Sachin could hit him for a couple of sixes only then would he be justifying his 8216;wonder boy8217; tag. Sachin was calm and said: How can I hit you? I am just a kid. He dispatched Qadir four times over the fence in that over. We all agreed that we were watching a special player.

Amol Muzumdar

As a youngster,Sachin was fond of English movies. I still remember a incident that happened during our school days. We were playing against Anjuman School in Giles Shield at Azad Maidan. Chasing 380,we lost three wickets quickly. Then Sachin and I formed a partnership. He scored 180-odd,I scored a century and we won the match. The match was over before 12 and we had our practice from 3. Sachin insisted that we must go to a movie. We went to Sterling and watched Top Gun. After that Sachin said no one would be going home. We took a train from Churchgate and went to Shivaji Park for our practice session. As a youngster,Sachin also used to play pranks. Atul Ranade was a common friend who later played for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy. It was during a U-15 tour. Ranade was sleeping and Sachin applied Amrutanjan all over his face. The next scene was Ranade jumping out of his bed and almost diving into a bucket full of water.

Kiran More

Sachin and I were sharing a room during the 1991-92 tour of Australia. One day I suddenly woke up and saw Sachin screaming in his sleep. He took a catch in slip the previous day and he was commentating the entire thing in his sleep. It simply spoke volumes of his commitment to the game.

W V Raman

Sachin always had a great sense of humor. He could imitate the mannerisms of his team mates and had a great ability to lift the morale of the side when the chips were down.

But in public he always had to be restrained. Thats because he knows even if he makes a light-hearted comment,that might be blown out of proportion.