When a waiter’s advice helped Sachin Tendulkar correct a batting flaw

When a Chennai waiter advised Sachin Tendulkar!

It is well known that Sachin Tendulkar is an inspiration, an almost God-like figure for Indians. It was not too long ago when Virat Kohli opened up on an instance in which Sachin helped him in correcting his technique. However, what if you found out that a waiter helped Sachin in rectifying his batting flaw? Surprised? Read on to know more!

During the launch of his own cricket equipment and sportswear range, ‘Sachin by Spartan’, the Mumbai-born legend narrated this amusing anectode. During his playing days, a waiter of a Chennai hotel walked upto him and gave him some priceless advice about his bat swing. Interestingly, Sachin followed it and it reaped dividends!

Sachin speaks about the incident

“If you have an open mind you can develop so many things. In Chennai, it was a waiter who came up to me and said if you don’t mind and don’t get offended I want to tell you something. I said go ahead. He said my elbow guard restricts my bat swing. And he was 100 percent right,” the Master Blaster told IndiaToday.

The Master Blaster was open to his advice and thereby, redesigned his elbow guard. “I knew I was feeling uncomfortable but I never thought of doing it myself. A few years down the line I got hit a couple of times on my elbow guard and it hurt. That’s when I realised that the padding on my elbow guard is inadequate,” he recounted.

“I needed to re-open the elbow guard and work on it, get the fibre and cushion on either side to absorb the impact. In our country everyone from panwala to CEOs will give you advice. But one should still be open about ideas,” he added.

More on Sachin’s choice of equipment

Incidentally, Sachin Tendulkar is also one of the players who laid emphasis on his protective equipment to the hilt. He would have his helmet on even while facing the spinners. Also, he started using the elbow guard in bouncier pitches of England and Australia.

However, this incident has made us realise that being open to the advice of a ordinary cricket fan( here, waiter) can work wonders for even a batsman of Sachin’s stature. He redesigned his guard later on which allowed him to play more freely. Interestingly however, it was a tennis elbow problem which kept Sachin out of the game for a while!

Thereby, he overcame several surgeries to score at will and pile up a multitude of international records. Most notably, he brought up a remarkable figure of 100 international centuries before finally hanging up his boots!