9th English Unit 1 Prose Learning the Game 

9th English Unit 1 Prose Learning the Game 

From a very early age, I played tennis-ball

cricket with my colony friends. I loved watching

cricket on television and in our games,

I often tried to emulate the mannerisms of

my favourite players, Sunil Gavaskar and

the West Indian legend Viv Richards. But it

wasn’t just the batsmen that I studied. I also

loved bowling. Throughout my career, I have

actually bowled a lot in the nets.

I was then studying in the New English

School, Mumbai. But my brother Ajit

knew that compared to other schools

in Mumbai, Shardashram Vidhyamandir

where Ramakant Achrekar Sir was the

cricket coach, gave due importance to the

game of cricket. He ran summer camps

too. Ajit, one day, took me to the camp to

get trained under Sir. Anyone could come

for a trial at the camp; but then, it was up

to Sir to decide who to accept. I was eleven

years old then. Achrekar Sir, as I refer to

him, started playing cricket at the age of

eleven in 1943, which is the age I was when

I went to him for the first time.

Who were Sachin’s favourite players?

• What was special about Shardashram

Vidyamandir in Mumbai?

I had never batted in the nets before and

felt somewhat overawed with so many

people around. When I was asked to bat,

I was not at all comfortable. With Sir watching

me so closely, I failed to make an impact.

Sir called Ajit aside and informed him that

I was perhaps too young to make the camp

and suggested that he should bring me back

when I was a little older. My induction into

the Mumbai cricket circuit could have ended

in failure – but for Ajit’s insistence. Having

seen me play in the colony, Ajit knew I was

capable of performing far better than I had

done in front of Achrekar Sir. He explained

that I was nervous and asked Sir to give

me one more opportunity. However, he

suggested that while doing so, Sir should

pretend to go away and then watch from

a distance. Sir agreed. Before long, I was

asked to bat again and, without Sir’s trained

eyes scrutinizing me – or so I thought, I felt

more at ease and soon started to hit the ball

well. This time, Sir agreed to let me join the

camp. I was delighted and I must say it was

an opportunity that transformed my life.

The camp involved a session every morning

and evening at Shivaji Park. I would

practice between 7.30 am and 10.30 am

in the morning. Then I’d come back in the

afternoon and practice till late evening.

The schedule was rigorous and I would be

exhausted by the end of the day. Travelling

to Shivaji Park took forty minutes from my

house in Bandra and I had to catch an early

morning bus to make it on time. For the

first few days, Ajit accompanied me, to get

me used to the routine. During the bus

journeys, he would talk to me about the

nuances of batting, and I always enjoyed

these conversations a lot. In fact, the one

thing that I have kept with me all my career

is a note that Ajit gave me containing some

thoughts about batting. It served as a very

personal coaching manual.

• What was the opportunity that

transformed the life of Sachin?

• What sort of conversations did Ajit

and Sachin have while travelling?

As a child, I had only one set of cricket

clothes and the routine was to wash them

as soon as I’d returned from the morning

session. While I had my lunch, the clothes

would dry out in the sun and I would wear

them again in the afternoon. The pattern

was repeated in the evening so that I could

use the same set of clothes the following

morning. The system worked well – apart

from my pockets. There was never quite

enough time for the pockets to dry out

completely, and for the entire duration of

the camp I played with wet pockets. By the

middle of the summer camp, Sir had started

taking an active interest in my batting and

at the end of the two months, informed Ajit

that I had the potential to be a good cricketer

if I practiced all year round. However, my

school – the New English School in Bandra

– did not have cricket facilities and Sir was

keen for me to change schools if I wanted

to pursue cricket seriously.

• What routine did Sachin follow in

washing his clothes?

• What did Achrekar inform Ajit?

One evening, Sir called my father and

put forward his suggestion. Ajit was in

the room with my father at the time and

they both accepted that it was necessary

if cricket was to be my priority. My father

sat me down and explained that while he

did not have any objections to my changing

schools, I should do so only if I was really

serious about playing cricket.I assured him

I was, and so it was agreed that I should

move to Shardashram Vidhyamandir, where

Achrekar Sir was the cricket coach. All my

excess energies were getting channelled

into cricket, which acted as a kind of safety

valve. My father always said that all he

wanted me to do was give it my best effort

without worrying about the results.

• What was the suggestion given by

Achrekar to Sachin’s father?

• What acted as a safety valve?

In my first year at Shardashram, I played

fifty five practice matches during the

summer break of sixty days. My summer

sessions used to start at 7.30 am and end

at 4.30 pm. My evening session would start

at 5 pm after only a thirty-minute break.

During the break, Sir would often give me

some money to go and have a vadapav

(a popular Mumbai fast food).

Between 5 pm and 7 pm I’d have five more

net sessions. Towards the last 15 minutes,

Sir would place a one rupee coin on top of

the stumps and if I managed to avoid getting

out, the coin was mine. In this session every

bowler in the camp would come and bowl

to me, with some sixty to seventy boys

fielding. It meant I had to hit every ball

along the ground to survive those intense

fifteen minutes. Winning the one–rupee

coin used to give me immense satisfaction

and taught me how to concentrate even

when physically drained. At the end of it all.,

Sir would tell me to run two full circuits of

Shivaji Park with my pads and gloves on

That was the last part of my training and

I’d be completely exhausted by the end of

it all. It was a routine I would repeat right

through my summer holidays and it helped

me to build up physical and mental stamina.

• What did Sachin do during the thirty

minute break?

• What is the intense ‘fifteen minutes’

mentioned ?

Occasionally, my father came to take me

home and I would always ask him to treat

me to a special fruit cocktail at a juice

centre near the club. While this regular

demand was a little unreasonable, because

at the time I did not realize that my parents

also had to take care of the needs of my

brothers and sister, my father would

invariably end up giving me what I wanted,

just to see me happy. On other days, when

I made my way home from Shivaji Park on

my own, I’d often fall asleep on the bus

– if I managed to sit down. Anyone who

has been on a Mumbai bus at peak hours

will know just how difficult it is to get a

seat. On days when I wasn’t so lucky, it

was still a challenge just to stand with the

kitbag, because the bus conductors would

inevitably complain about me taking up the

space of another passenger. It could be

embarrassing because the conductors were

often rude and would sometimes ask me to

buy two tickets. I didn’t have the money for

a second ticket and I had to learn to take

these remarks in my stride. Dirty clothes

often added to the embarrassment. With

time, I evolved a way of wrapping the

kitbag around me. Just as the helmet and

pads became a part of me while batting,

so the kitbag became an extension of me

on the bus. I’d often take the bus or train

from Bandra to Church gate, and it was all

a great learning experience.

• What did Sachin’s father do just to

make Sachin happy?

• What did embarrass Sachin in

the bus?

Even though I loved cricket, there were

still occasional days when playing with my

friends at home was such fun that I would

conveniently forget I was supposed to go to

the nets. If I didn’t turn up, Achrekar Sir would

jump on to his scooter and come to find me.

Sir would spot me in the melee and virtually

drag me out. I would come up with excuses

but he would have none of it. He would get

me to change and head off to Shivaji Park.

On the drive he would tell me, “Don’t waste

your time playing insane games with these kids.

Cricket is waiting for you at the nets. Practice

hard and see what magic can transpire."

• What made Sachin forget, to go to

the nets?

• What did Achrekar advise Sachin?

"We need to have proper career orientation.

Your personality plays an important role

in choosing the type of career you want.

Choose something you enjoy and really

want to do and you will be successful."

At that time, I hated being dragged off, but

as I look back, I feel sheepish about my

actions and can only admire Achrekar Sir’s

farsightedness.

Sir also punished me on one occasion when

trying to teach me a very important lesson.

Once, I bunked my daily evening practice

to watch an inter-school cricket match not

anticipating that Sir would be there. He

was angry and he said it wasn’t for me to

come and watch other people play for, if

I practiced hard enough, one day people

from across the world would come and watch

me play. Had it not been for Sir, I would not

be the cricketer I turned out to be. He was

a strict disciplinarian and did everything he

could for me. I owe myself to him.

About the author

Sachin Ramesh

Tendulkar was born

on 24th April 1973 in

Mumbai, Maharastra.

He was a former

Indian cricketer and

captain widely regarded as one of the

greatest cricketers of all time. He made

an impact in cricket from a very early age,

displaying a prodigious talent. The world

famous cricketer has set many records in

his career and is considered as one of the

greatest Batsman of all times. He is the

only player to have scored one hundred

international centuries, the first to score

double century in a One Day International ,

and the only player to complete more than

30,000 runs in international cricket. He

played 664 international cricket matches

in total, scoring 34,357 runs. In 2012,

Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya

Sabha. He retired from cricket on 16th

November 2013. ‘Learning the Game’ is an

extract from his autobiography Playing it

My Way.