The Shardashram Vidyamandir School’s Cricket team in Bombay was considered as one of the strongest and dreaded side at the time when teenagers in Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Amol Mazumdar and the likes represented them.
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The school further made a special name for itself when Sachin Tendulkar, at the age as young as 14, alongside another prodigy in Vinod Kambli decided to register a partnership record the entire cricketing fraternity talks about till date.
The famous 664-run stand during the Harris Shield Tournament was indeed unbelievable to say the least, but such was Tendulkar’s run-making form during that 1987-88 period, that a score less than the three-figure mark under his name would have surely raised quite a many eyebrows.
The spectator turnout was evident enough of the same. Only a Sachin Tendulkar, even at the age of mere 14, could have an aura and reputation to attract a huge crowd turn up for an inter-school semi-final match, which the general populace otherwise would not even bat an eyelid in any other part of the country.
However, the unprecedented feat would have been impossible to achieve had Tendulkar and Kambli not decided to disobey their childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar.
How a 14-year-old Sachin Tendulkar lied to his coach
Amol Mazumdar, during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo in the year 2004, had revealed that Achrekar had sent a word to the duo that they were supposed to declare the innings early the following morning.
However, with Tendulkar and Kambli batting at their respective individual scores of 192 and 182 respectively and coach Achrekar not present at the match venue, the duo decided to inflict further misery on the St. Xavier’s School bowlers.
The superstar that Tendulkar was in the team, none of the other players, including Mazumdar who was supposed to bat next (no.4) in the batting order, could do anything about it.
After playing out a wicket less morning session, the mischievous Tendulkar rang up Achrekar from the nearby Khao Galli during the Lunch break, and informed the latter that Kambli was the one who wanted to score a 350 and immediately passed the phone to him. Kambli was unbeaten on 349*, while Tendulkar had piled on 326*.
After quickly blaming the decision to carry on with the innings on Kambli, and not revealing his personal score to the coach, Tendulkar decided to finally declare the innings with the scorecard reading 748/2 after 120 Overs.
