“My watches should always be set 7-8 minutes ahead”: Sachin Tendulkar once revealed how glaring seniors in team bus made him a disciplined cricketer

Sachin Tendulkar was certainly one of the greatest ever players to ever play the game. The Indian legend is the highest run-scorer in both ODIs and Tests, and some of the records that Tendulkar holds are almost impossible to achieve for any player out there at the moment.

Tendulkar was a player who was adored by many, former English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff called him one of the best batters he ever bowled to in his career. Even Shoaib Akhtar said that he loved bowling against Tendulkar and enjoyed the rivalry with him on the field.

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Tendulkar was certainly one of the most disciplined cricketers around, and when he was banned for his action during the Test between South Africa and India, it sparked a lot of controversies as well. However, he revealed that he was not that disciplined early on in his career.

Sachin Tendulkar once revealed how glaring seniors made him a disciplined cricketer

Sachin Tendulkar appeared on the show ‘Breakfast with Champions’ hosted by Gaurav Kapoor, where he revealed the secret behind how he became a disciplined cricketer. Tendulkar said that he was not a disciplined cricketer at all when he joined the Indian cricket team at an age of 16.

Tendulkar said that he got a little late on the team bus a couple of times, and the seniors used to stare at him. He insisted that after that incident, he always kept his watch 7-8 minutes ahead so that he was never late.

“In the beginning, I wasn’t disciplined at all! When I was 16, I didn’t realise that ‘Team bus is leaving at 8 a.m.’ means it’s leaving at 8 a.m. Not 8:05,” Sachin Tendulkar said.

“After a couple of times, I understood. The seniors were all sitting in the bus glaring at me. Someone would ask ‘What time is it in your watch?”

“Since then, it became a habit. My watches would always be set 7-8 minutes ahead.”

In the show, he also mentioned how he got emotional during his last Test match in the presence of his mother. Tendulkar even revealed why any of his family members never visited the stadiums to watch him play.