Tendulkar opens up on a unique challenge given by his brother during the 2004 Sydney Test
Fondly knows as the God of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar owns several records to his name. While he used to play on the field, even the best of the bowlers remained in terror of his sight. However, the Tendulkar has also gone with his share of lows in his sparkling career and one of them happened on the 2004 tour of Australia.
Tendulkar was looking low on confidence by scoring just 82 runs in his last five innings and walked up the Sydney Cricket Ground for the 4th Test of the tour. Australian bowlers, media, and people were getting under his skin and it could be felt that ace batter just couldn’t find answers to anything. He had a struggle while playing balls outside off-stump.
However, Tendulkar knew well how to silence his critics and played one of his best knocks ever. Years after that tour, Tendulkar revealed how he was challenged by his brother to get going in the Test. His brother always remained on his side and gave him the challenge to stick on the crease no matter what.
When I went to bat, I realized that they were bowling away from me all the time: Sachin Tendulkar
“For me in Sydney, it wasn’t planned. My brother had challenged me. He asked me that since no one can get me out, are you willing to take up this challenge with me that you are not going to get out in this match. So, I said, okay I am accepting that challenge, no bowler is going to get me out. When I went to bat, I realized that they were bowling away from me all the time,” Tendulkar told The Indian Express.
It has to be noted that in that particular Test, the Master Blaster avoided playing outside the off stumps and came up with a roaring score of 241* and 60*. Tendulkar’s record of 100 international centuries still remains intact and it will be a thing to see if that gets broken anytime soon in the future.
Sachin Tendulkar reflects back on introduction of technology to cricket
Technology has changed a lot of things in sports. In today’s day and age, players can get a lot of help from technology to fine-tune their game. This is one of the aspects which has truly revolutionized international cricket. In a recent interview, Indian great Sachin Tendulkar talked about the use of technology and also gave a tip on how he used it to his benefit.
Tendulkar recalled during the same chat that it was in 2002 when a laptop was brought to the Indian dressing room. He further revealed what his reaction was when he first saw a laptop being used in the dressing room. Over the years, with the growth of technology, the importance of analysis has also taken a shape and in a lot of ways has helped cricketers.
“Technology has changed everything. In 2002, a laptop was brought to the dressing room and I said, ‘laptop kya Karega dressing room mein? (What will a laptop do in the dressing room?),’” he told The Indian Express in an exclusive chat. Tendulkar also noted how technology helped the team. He revealed that it took some time but eventually everyone started to accept it and adapt to it.
Over a period of time, there was acceptance: Sachin Tendulkar
“Over a period of time, there was acceptance. Only if there is acceptance, will there be adaptability. Our team meetings started to be more precise. It was not left to individual imaginations. So, the meetings were not like earlier, where we used to say … “yaad hai na Melbourne mein outswing pe out Kiya tha (remember back then at Melbourne, how we got them out)”. And after saying that, no one knew who was thinking about that Melbourne day and how we got the batsmen out” Tendulkar said.
The Indian batsman said that with the help of technology, people could easily now point out where the foot of the batsman was landing and how exactly a batsman has been dismissed in a similar fashion. But, it should be said that not all cricketers enjoy the use of technology as some feel it has been used excessively.
Master Blaster revealed that he took a different approach to the whole use of technology situation. He noted that if he got too deep into it then his mind would get complicated. Tendulkar said that he would often watch the bowling of his opposition but he preferred not to watch too much of his batting. His plan was to be fully prepared for the bowlers.
