After breaking many cricket records with his bat, Sachin Tendulkar is now breaking records with his pen. His autobiography Playing It My Way is the most trending topic in the cricketing world, and it has already shattered a few records.
The Cricket Lounge’s Kaushik Narayanan has read the book and picked 9 things that learnt from Sachin Tendulkar’s book.
• Sachin Tendulkar made his debut against the fierce Pakistani attack. In his own words, he was very skeptical about his chances in international cricket following his debut, where he found it difficult to keep up with the fierce attack that had the likes of Wasim and Waqar. Sachin also adds that the Pakistani crowd didn’t help him either, as he was booed for his age and small stature.
• Sachin has also written about his County Cricket days during the 1992 season, in which he played for Yorkshire. Sachin has written that their “bonding sessions” were very hilarious, where players used to do the the most absurd things. He describes one is which one of the players requested to wear only a towel and a tie, without a shirt. Sachin couldn’t believe that they were serious until he saw many of them in that attire.
• Also, during his Yorkshire days, he ran “riots” at various world famous restaurants, including KFC and Pizza Hut. Sachin has also described his love for home cooked food, and love for his mother’s “delicious fish and prawn curry, baigan bharta and varan bhaat (lentils and rice)”.
• Sachin has always expressed love his for Tennis, but in his book, Sachin has written how golf played an imporatnt part in his cricketing career. Taking a cue from Don Bradman’s practice technique during his youth, Sachin bought a couple of golf balls and cut them in oval shape and asked his aunt to throw them at him while using the living room as a net. Sachin says that this helped him in improving his backfoot technique.
• He listened to Bade Achhe Lagte Hain on his iPod for seven hours before the 2011 WC semi-final, which he describes as “one of the most pressurised games of my career”. Sachin has also written about his sleepless nights before the 2003 group stage match against Pakistan, and also said that he never watched the 2011 WC finals once he got out.
• Among the captains Sachin played against, he considers Nasser Hussain the best. Sachin hailed Hussain as an excellent strategist, and also as a good thinker.
• Sachin has written in his book that his son Arjun Tendulkar once pushed a guy in his school for criticizing his father. Arjun cried a lot after Sachin announced his retirement.
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Playing It My Way, by Sachin Tendulkar is published by Hodder & Stoughton
