Ajit Tendulkar opens up about Sachin Tendulkar, says most of the icon's dreams have come true

The story goes like this. Sachin Tendulkar was about nine when his older brother, Ajit Tendulkar, first watched him play rubber-ball cricket in the leafy confines of the Sahitya Sahawas colony in Bandra. The easy back-lift, the full-blooded swing of the willow and the ability to pick the length of the ball earlier than many others convinced Ajit that Sachin was special. And so he took his brother to Ramakant Achrekar, the hard-nosed coach known for running a ‘cricket factory’ at Shivaji Park.

It’s hard to believe Ajit is a recluse. Yes, it’s taken him over a quarter of a century to open up, but the kind of anecdotes he’s dishing out these days only leave you asking for more. Not to forget his sense of humour and recall value.

Sample this: “For me, Sachin is a millionaire only when he gets a hundred,” Ajit said at the star-studded Salaam Sachin conclave. Or, this one: “The manner in which Sachin used to bat in his early days, it used to scare us. What if he gets out, we used to wonder. Around the same time, Raj Singh Dungarpur told our father, ‘Sachin ko bolo ki car first gear mein start karein, fifth mein nahin.”

The man who introduced Sachin to the game and offered a helping hand to the batting maestro has seldom watched him bat. Known to go on long drives when Sachin is at the crease, Ajit has promised to be there at the Wankhede.

“We used to be very nervous,” Ajit said. “The family was never there (at the stadium), but we were always with him in spirit. Mother used to always pray, my sister used to keep a fast, Anjali would do something else and I would sit and visualise something positive, hoping that Sachin would do everything right with the bat,” he added.

“On the afternoon of November 18, it would be a different feeling. All of us in the family, we dream about his cricket... one we have shared. That will end, but it is finishing on a happy note. Most of his dreams have come true. I believe he has fulfilled the dreams of the Indian fans,” he said.

“After November 18, Sachin won’t wear his India cap. It will be a big change because he has been wearing it with pride for 24 years. Throughout his career, everyone expected him to score 100s and he was under tremendous stress and pressure, but all that has been worth. After retirement, there won’t be the bowlers to face or those work-outs. Perhaps he can eat as much butter chicken as he wants,” he added.

You’ve heard and read a lot about how Sachin’s mother convinced him to go back to England after performing his father’s last rites in 1999. What Ajit shared symbolised the spirit of the family. It was Anjali who went to the team hotel and broke the news to Sachin.

“Even if our father had come alive for a minute, he would have asked Sachin to go back (and play). Two months before he passed away, father had suffered a heart attack. Sachin was playing in Sri Lanka then. I told father I would not tell Sachin about it. Father just smiled and said ‘yes, you shouldn’t’. The next day, Sachin scored a hundred.”

There were moments of pure emotion and there were instances of rib-tickling humour too.
“Sachin had to catch a flight and we were driving down to the airport at 6:30 am. His BMW stopped in the middle of the flyover and we were forced to hire a taxi and a rickshaw,” Ajit recalled. “The taxiwallah and autowallah were stunned. We quickly moved Sachin’s luggage from the car into the two vehicles. Sachin took the taxi and I followed him in the auto. Even people at the airport were stunned.”

Now that’s some bhaigiri!