Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar who claimed almost every record that is there to be taken in international cricket before calling it quits last year, has finally opened up about the dark days he survived in a career which spanned over two decades.
Devastated and scarred, skipper Sachin Tendulkar wanted to quit cricket altogether after being disgusted with his team’s performance in the West Indies tour in1997, the batting maestro reveals in his autobiography.
In his autobiography “Playing it My Way”, to be released on November 6, the 41-year-old former batsman has dwelled on the frustrations he faced during his tenure as captain. He led India in 25 Tests between 1996 and 2000 – losing 9, winning 4 and drawing 12 matches. The Master-blaster retired with a mammoth 15,921 runs from 200 Tests and 18,426 runs from 463 ODIs.
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The autobiography also talks about the controversy during the Indian team’s tour of South Africa in 2001 when he was accused of being involved in ball tampering by the match referee Mike Denness. He writes that he was prepared to abandon the tour because he had been called a cheat. Tendulkar says that all he did was to use his thumb to clean off the dirt that was stuck on the ball’s seam. He insists that he never tampered with the ball.
The incident happened during the second Test match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth. The Indians were infuriated and threatened to boycott the third Test if Denness was not removed. Tendulkar’s long-time teammate and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said in a reaction to Tendulkar’s revelations that there was no question of Tendulkar tampering with the ball.
The much-awaited book is co-authored by noted sports journalist and historian Boria Majumdar.
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