Sachin Tendulkar reveals the reason why his elder brother sent him to coaching at an early age

Sachin Tendulkar, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Pravin Amre and Balvinder Singh Sandhu (right) during the inauguration of the late Ramakant Achrekar’s memorial at Shivaji Park yesterday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Batting icon Sachin Tendulkar revealed on Tuesday as to why his elder brother Ajit decided to send him to coach Ramakant Achrekar at an early age.

"When Ajit used to play, his observation was that even during a match, Lalchand Rajput, Chandu [Chandrakant] Pandit, Subhash Kshirsagar always enjoyed the game, singing songs and looked so confident. But those who were not Sir's [Achrekar] students were sweating it out due to the tension.

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"So, he [Ajit] always wondered why Sir's students never looked tense. And as he practised at Shivaji Park, he realised that the players' match temperament developed because they got a chance to play a lot of practice matches with Sir. And I was no exception because I played plenty of practice matches and developed my match temperament. It was possible only because my brother took this decision to take me to Sir's coaching [nets]," Tendulkar said while addressing the gathering after unveiling Achrekar's memorial at Shivaji Park, Dadar.

India's 1983 World Cup-winning bowler Balvinder Singh Sandhu, former India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, Test cricketers Pravin Amre, Vinod Kambli, Sameer Dighe, Sanjay Bangar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and Achrekar's elder daughter Vishakha Dalvi were on the dais on the respected coach's birth anniversary.