Explaining Sachin Tendulkar’s unique way of dealing with unnecessary chit-chat from the fielding side, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said the little master was a gentleman both on and off the field.
Agar Sachin Tendulkar ko irritate kia…’: Ex-Pakistan captain on sledging
Sachin Tendulkar had a fairly simple way of dealing with sledging. He mostly did let his bat do all the talking. In his long international career spanning a record 24 years, he had many fierce on-field battles with some of the greatest fast bowlers in the world like Craig McDermott, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, James Anderson, Dale Steyn but rarely did he lose his cool. Explaining Tendulkar’s unique way of dealing with unnecessary chit-chat from the fielding side, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said the little master was a gentleman both on and off the field.
“Wo dekhte the pichhe kaun hai, agar tang karoge toh baat nahi karega. (he used to see who are there behind the wicket. If you irritate him then he won’t talk). But if he is in a good mood, then he used to talk, indulge in friendly conversations. He would avoid you if you unnecessarily irritate him. He was a proper gentleman both on and off the field,” Latif said on his YouTube channel ‘Caught Behind’ when asked by the host about the conversations he had with the legendary India cricketer.
The former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter also highlighted how opening the batting in ODI cricket changed Tendulkar’s fortunes after a slow start in white-ball cricket.
Tendulkar became a great later. In 1993-94, he scored his first hundred in front of us in Singer Cup. He came up the order and didn’t look back ever since and he didn’t stop. I think he played more than 70 od ODIs till then without a hundred,” Latif added.
Tendulkar, who made his ODI debut in December 1989, took five years and 79 matches to register his first ODI hundred. While it did come in the Singer World Series in 1994, it was against Australia in Colombo. Latif was perhaps talking about the Austral-Asia Cup a couple of months ago where Tendulkar had smashed a breathtaking 73 while opening the batting against Pakistan in Sharjah. Latif was Pakistan’s wicketkeeper in that match.
Latif, who played a lot of cricket against Tendulkar, kept among the greatest of all times. “Tendulkar is one of the greatest in the history of the game. Don Bradman, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, and Jacques Kallis they are among the greatest ever,” he added.
Tendulkar, who is the only cricketer to play 200 Test matches and score 100 international centuries, still continues to be the leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs.
