Sachin Tendulkar has reminisced on a lofty target set him by fellow Indian great Sunil Gavaskar early in his career, one that the Little Master still surpassed easily.
A clip of the interview was posted by Twitter user Subu Sastry, with Gavaskar threatening to “personally go and strangle” Tendulkar if he didn’t break the world record for the most Test centuries.
“I for one know that if at the end of his career he does not get a minimum of 15,000 runs and 40 Test centuries, I shall personally go and strangle him,” Gavaskar said. “20 years down the road, my hands will not have the strength, so he might still survive, but I think I will deputise someone to do that for me. Sachin, I hope you will not let me down and you will not let Indian cricket down.”
This happened very early in my career.🙂
Special words from the great man. I am just glad that I could live upto his expectations.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful moment Subu!
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) June 20, 2020
Tendulkar simply responded: “I will do my best.”
Sachin: The Story of the World’s Greatest Batsman, by Gulu Ezekiel, dates the interview back to 1996, a year by the end of which Tendulkar had a mere 10 Test centuries, 3,106 Test runs, and 7,929 international runs. He would go onto make 34,357 runs in all, 15,921 of which came in Test cricket, and 51 Test centuries.
Tendulkar replied to the clip on Twitter. “This happened very early in my career,” he tweeted. “Special words from the great man. I am just glad that I could live up to his expectations. Thanks for sharing this wonderful moment Subu!”
