For someone with an illustrious career spanning over 24 years, for someone who started his first-class career at the age of 15 and went on to become a demigod for millions, there can surely be no dearth of stories and anecdotes related to him which would make one go “Wow!!”. Legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar, who had emerged to be the face of India post its economic liberalization in early 1990s, can narrate aplenty ones from his days as a young prodigy itself.
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The Master Blaster, who had a knack of playing marathon knocks and used to hardly get fed up of batting for long hours as a teenager, had experienced that emotion with respect to his landline phone at home.
Sachin Tendulkar Was Fed Up Of Continuously Ringing Landline Phone At Home
Former sports journalist-cum-actor late Tom Alter was the first person to have recorded Tendulkar’s video interview for the press when the latter was just 15 years of age. The interview was for the Mid-Day newspaper, and had taken place on January 19, 1989 at Hindi Gymkhana Ground, Mumbai. Just over two months ago, Tendulkar had made his maiden Ranji Trophy appearance for Bombay, and had become the youngest Indian to score a century on first-class debut.
Tendulkar, who had become an instant hit in the Indian cricketing fraternity, had tasted the unwarranted side of fame post the interview. Not only him, but his parents also had to face the ordeal, as his home landline would just not stop ringing!
The fact was revealed by veteran Indian broadcaster Harsha Bhogle during an interaction with Gaurav Kapur on his podcast named ‘22 Yarns‘. Bhogle stated how well-acquainted he was with Tendulkar and his family right since the days the Mumbai batter was just 14-15.
Days after the Tom Alter interview, Bhogle revealed that he had been invited to Tendulkar’s house. During his meeting with him that day, he has asked him the reason why he couldn’t receive any telephone calls from people.
“I was invited to his house once, and had to ask Sachin [Tendulkar] why is it that you can’t take telephone calls from anybody? And he said, ‘Now see what happens’. And he put his phone down, pre-mobile era, he put his phone down and it started to ring, because his father’s number was in the telephone directory.”
Bhogle mentioned that when someone would open the telephone directory back in the day, he/she could easily find the phone number of Ramesh Tendulkar (Sachin’s father), which, in fact, was the landline number of his house! Thus, the family members had to always keep the phone off-the-hook, because the moment it was put on, someone would definitely call. Such was the fan following of a 15-year-old!
In the above video, Bhogle recalled writing a piece on Tendulkar (after interviewing him) for a sports magazine in Kolkata before the latter’s Ranji Trophy debut and after his interview with Tom Alter. Although inadvertently, it is an inaccurate claim as mentioned above.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Confidence Exhibited In Interview With Tom Alter
Even though the entire video interview is not available in public domain, an ever-confident Tendulkar can be seen in a short video clip from the same. When asked if he is tired answering questions and giving interviews already, Sachin remarked, “I think this is just the start,” to which Tom added, “Yeah, it is a part of being a cricket star.”
He might have come across a tad overconfident back then, but Tendulkar had admitted to be ever-ready to face the lethal fast bowling duo of Malcolm Marshall and Curtley Ambrose had be been picked for India’s tour of West Indies 1988/89.
Later in the clip, he even had remarked how he had no trouble facing the in-swingers and out-swingers bowled by former India captain Kapil Dev in the nets at the CCI (Cricket Club of India). In fact, Kapil had once remarked how he was more than just impressed with the way Tendulkar had faced him for the first time.
