When Sachin Tendulkar told India player 'If you do this again, I will send you back home'

Former India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has revealed how he threatened to send a young teammate back home after the latter got carried away while playing a match during the Australian tour. While speaking at an event organised by Infosys, Tendulkar said he had to warn a young teammate while playing a practice match in Australia as he got carried away and was playing around with the crowd. Tendulkar stated that the player ended up giving two runs where it was just a single. Tendulkar, however, did not reveal the name of the player. 

“I was the captain of the team and we are on a tour of Australia. One of the junior players -- it was his first tour -- he was carried away, he was playing around with the crowd, and where it was single, he ended up giving away two runs. So, I calmly called him after the over, put my arm around him. No one else knew what I was telling him but he knew that he cannot afford to do that again. Because I said, 'if you do this again, I will send you back home. You will not go back to the hotel, you will be back in India',” Tendulkar revealed in an event conducted by Infosys.

“Nothing is compromised when you play for India. This is a huge honour. There are millions of people aspiring to be in your spot. Don't take it for granted,” the former India cricketer further said.

Tendulkar as captain

Tendulkar is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers to have ever played the sport. He was also the captain of the Indian team on two occasions but was not very successful. Tendulkar was first made the Indian captain in 1996 but he soon resigned from the post due to the team's poor performance. He was again made the captain in 1999 in the wake of the match-fixing scandal. However, after suffering two back-to-back Test series defeats against Australia and South Africa, Tendulkar stepped down from the position. Sourav Ganguly took over the reins of the Indian team after that. 

Tendulkar has represented India in 200 Tests, 463 ODIs, and one T20 International. He remains the highest run-scorer in both the Test and ODI formats with 15,921 and 18,426 runs, respectively. He has 100 international centuries to his name, the most number of hundred scored by any player for his country in the history of the sport. 

Image: PTI