Watch: Sachin Tendulkar turns southpaw on International Left-Handers Day
Sachin Tendulkar wished all his colleagues in cricket on International Left-Handers Day. The right-handed batter posted a video on his social media account of batting and bowling with his left hand to mark the occasion. August 13 is marked as World Left Handers Day with the intent of commemorating the individuals with mastery over the left hand in a world predominantly for right-handers.
For the unversed, the Master Blaster is ambidextrous as he uses both hands for different activities. The Indian legend writes and eats with his left hand while his cricketing mastery was with the right hand. However, the Bharat Ratna awardee has revealed in the past was predominantly left-hander while growing up and had to turn right-handed while batting because he used a kit that was made for his right-handed elder brother.
“This one is for my left-handed friends…Happy #InternationalLeftHandersDay!,” Sachin captioned the post.
Cricket has a huge chunk of southpaws in its pantheon
Talking about the left-handers, the stats suggest that the world’s population comprises only 7-10 percent of left-handers. But cricket is one such sport where the ratio of the lefties has only raked over the years as it presently stands at around 20 percent of players who are lefties. The likes of Brian Lara, Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Yuvraj Singh, and Chris Gayle have inadvertently turned many budding cricketers southpaws.
The potential reason for people curbing their emotions about the dominant left hand is the cultural dominance of perceiving the use of the left hand as a sin, for instance eating and exchanging money. Over the years, people have started accepting the importance of southpaws but when dig deep into the remote areas, they are still considered taboo.
