'One of our senior guys tried at least twice to deliberately run him out' - Chandrakant Pandit remembers rib-tickling incident involving Sachin Tendulkar

As the former legendary India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar turned 50 today, birthday wishes are pouring in for the Master Blaster from across the world. Amidst such memorable wishes, Chandrakant Pandit, who is serving Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as their head coach nowadays, recounted an interesting incident with Tendulkar, in the book named Sachin@50.

Pandit revealed how he was not convinced to play the 12-year-old Tendulkar in a practice game at the Matunga Gymkhana ground, despite coach Ramakant Achrekar’s instruction. The disagreement between Pandit and Achrekar occurred and the former along with some senior players felt that Tendulkar won’t be able to generate enough power with his shots.

“We had a full-fledged match against New Hind Club at the Matunga Gymkhana ground. Now, sir came in the morning and instructed me. ‘Chandu, you need to play Sachin, and he should get to bat in the top five. No way you are going to bench him.”

“Well, I wasn’t convinced that someone that young, just about 12 years old, could field for 50 overs. Also, it was a senior team’s match, and a few seniors and I were convinced that Sachin’s shots won’t have that power.”

Pandit also added that even Achrekar knew that Tendulkar needed to produce more power through his shots but after failing to persuade his coach along with other teammates, Pandit chalked up a plan with his two to three teammates to run Tendulkar out during the game.

“And trust me, even Achrekar sir knew that he needed to generate more power. Since we failed to convince sir, three to four of us decided that whoever gets the first opportunity should run him out as we would need quick runs,” added Pandit.

The KKR coach also recalled how one of the senior players in the team tried to trap Tendulkar and run him out intentionally while batting. However, the then 12-year-old dodged the danger safely.

“Accordingly, when Sachin batted, on my instructions, one of our senior guys tried at least twice to deliberately run him out by calling him for non-existent singles. Somehow the little one managed to avoid getting out and returned to the crease.”

Sachin realised that we were trying to run him out: Pandit

Pandit also reminisced that Tendulkar realised that his teammates were trying to run him out and what transpired left Pandit in awe of Sachin.

“But Sachin realised that we were trying to run him out, and what he did next was unimaginable. There was a straightforward single, and he called the other guy and ran him out. Of course, there was momentary anger for me, but his cricketing smarts and sharp mind have stayed with me all these years.”

After a few years of the incident, Sachin made his international debut in a Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. The batting maestro gave his services to the national team for 24 years (1989-2023). During this period, he piled up 34,357 runs with his bat in 664 international matches, with 100 tons and 164 fifties.