 "Sachin Tendulkar opens up on a range of topics in Reddit AMA. Images: Reddit/Reuters")
The ocean of cricket knowledge and experience, legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) session was bound to be nostalgic and insightful as the world’s greatest batter shared some of the most interesting anecdotes, experiences and introduced fans to this thought process.
One of the most interesting topics that Tendulkar touched upon was his relationship with umpire Steve Bucknor.
Tendulkar cracks Bucknor joke, wants DRS change
The former West Indian umpire has often been criticised for giving Tendulkar out wrongfully on multiple occasions. While talking about Bucknor’s umpiring, Tendulkar made a funny joke that someone needed to stop him from raising his fingers so often, highlighting that even he felt the same frustration as his fans.
“When I am batting, give him boxing gloves to wear (so he can’t raise his finger),” Tendulkar said.
Having been at the receiving end of many horrible umpiring decisions in the pre-DRS era, Tendulkar also suggested a change to the current Decision Review System. He felt that the Umpire’s Call element can be dropped as the players have already opposed the umpires’ decision, and we must learn to trust the technology.
“I would change the DRS rule on the Umpire’s call… Technology, even when inaccurate, will be consistently inaccurate,” Tendulkar said.
Why Dhoni ahead of Yuvraj in 2011 WC final?
While reflecting on the 2011 World Cup win, Tendulkar was asked why captain MS Dhoni was sent ahead of Yuvraj Singh in the final. Tendulkar clarified that India wanted a left-right combination in the middle to negate the two off-spinners from Sri Lanka and that Dhoni had a good practice of playing against Muralitharan.
“There were two reasons: the left-right batting combination would’ve upset the two off-spinners, also Muralitharan had played for CSK and MS had played him in the nets,” he said.
How expectations inspired Sachin
Besides being a batting stalwart and the only one to score 100 international hundreds, Tendulkar also holds the record for playing the most international matches (664) in which he scored 34,357 and took 201 wickets. Tendulkar achieved all of this while shouldering expectations as big as the Himalaya from the tender age of 16.
However, Sachin never felt that the expectations or the criticism were a burden. To him, it was always his guiding light.
“When a billion+ are behind you, they propel you forward,” Sachin said when asked about the pressure of carrying the expectations of the nation.