Paying tribute to his childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar on the occasion of "Teachers Day", batting legend and former India captain Sachin Tendulkar today (September 5) recalled an incident where his guru "scolded" him and taught him a "big lesson" in life.
Tendulkar took to the micro-blogging website Twitter to post a video where he spoke about an incident that "changed" his career.
He wrote with the video, "Happy #TeachersDay! The lessons you taught me have always served me well. Sharing an incident with you all that changed my life!."
The Mumbaikar started off, "It was a weird experience during my school days."
He continued, "I was playing for our school's (Shardashram Vidyamandir School) junior team and our senior side was playing in The Harris Shield final at the Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai)."
On the same day, Tendulkar's coach Achrekar had arranged a practice match for him but his disciple skipped much to the disappointment of his mentor.
"My coach Ramakant Achrekar sir had arranged a practice match for me. After my school, he had told me to go there. He said, 'I have spoken to the team's captain, you have to bat at number four and there is no need to field'. That used to be my practice. You get to learn how to score runs during match practice. How much ever net practice you do, match practice is something different," Tendulkar, who owns several records in international cricket, recalled in the video posted to his 18 million plus followers.
He added, "I skipped the practice match and went to Wankhede Stadium and sat in the stands to cheer our school senior team. I was clapping and enjoying the match. After the game I saw Achrekar sir. I went and said 'Namaste' and wished him. Sir asked me, 'how many runs did you score today?'
Happy #TeachersDay! The lessons you taught me have always served me well. Sharing an incident with you all that changed my life! pic.twitter.com/J1izUvPG3C
— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 5, 2017
"Sir I came here to cheer our senior team and applaud them. Hearing this, my sir scolded me in front of so many people there. He said, 'you need not clap for others. You concentrate on your cricket and achieve something so that others clap for you'. For me this was a very big lesson in life. After that I never missed a match."
In February 1988, Tendulkar (326 not out) and Vinod Kambli (349 not out) had a record 664-run partnership for Shardashram Vidyamandir in The Harris Shield semi-final against St. Xavier's High School at Azad Maidan.
