'Be quiet and let me bat': KKR coach recalls encounter with 13-year-old Sachin Tendulkar

The Indian cricket community celebrated the legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s 50th birth anniversary on April 24. While Tendulkar received wishes from all corners of India on Monday, former Indian and Mumbai cricketer Chandrakant Pandit recalled an interesting incident involving the legendary player, when the latter was only 13 years old. Recalling the incident that took place in 1986, Pandit revealed how the young lad kept asking him if he was done with his practice every 20 minutes.

Chandrakant Pandit, who currently serves as the head coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise in the Indian Premier League, made the revelations in a book named ‘Sachin@50’, which is being released on his 50th birthday. In the book, Pandit recalled the incident taking place at Shivaji Park in Mumbai in 1986. Interestingly, Sachin Tendulkar made his first-class debut at the age of 15 during the 1988-89 season and made his international debut for Team India during India’s tour of Pakistan in 1989.

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I would look at him and wonder, ‘Yeh kya cheez hai’: Chandrakant Pandit

Recalling the incident, the KKR head coach said, “This was 1986, and I had just made my India debut. During the off-season, I was at Shivaji Park to practice at sir’s nets. So now, whenever I would go out to bat, I would find Sachin, padding up and standing right behind the nets”.

“After every 20 minutes, he would ask, ‘Tera ho gaya kya (Are you done?)? Main jaaon (Should I go?)?’ I would look at him and wonder, ‘Yeh kya cheez hai (Who is this guy?)?’ I would say curtly, ‘Be quiet and let me bat.’ But after 10 more minutes, again, the same query, ‘Are you done?’’ the KKR head coach added.

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After making his Team India debut as a teenager in 1989, Tendulkar went on to play international cricket for over two decades and enlisted his name among the GOAT cricketers. He went on to play a total of 664 international games for India across formats and scored over 34000 international runs. His illustrious career as a player saw him lift the coveted ICC ODI World Cup in 2011 after playing cricket professionally for over two decades.