Sanju Samson and Sachin Tendulkar
As he walked up to receive the Player of the Tournament award after India’s T20 World Cup win on Sunday, an emotional Sanju Samson recalled how broken he felt, his dreams shattered, after a poor run of form.
Fortunately for Samson, help was just a phone call away.Samson has become the latest in a long line of Indian batsmen to seek help from the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar. Like others, he was not disappointed.Go beyond boundaries with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!“When I was sitting out in Australia (during the T20Is in October)… not playing a game, I thought about the mentality required,” Sampson said, “I reached out to ‘sir’ and had long conversations with him.”Samson spoke from the heart about the value of Sachin’s guidance – “that clarity, that preparation for the game, that awareness, that sense of play”.
“Even the night before the final, the gentleman called me to check how I was feeling,” he revealed.
Sanju Samson opens his T20 World Cup journey and wins the title
There is a reason why Sachin was referred to as the ‘University of Batting’ by Sunil Gavaskar, who himself was once Tendulkar’s mentor. Former India coach and former South Africa opening batsman Gary Kirsten, also referred to Tendulkar in similar terms.Despite spending more than a decade away from international cricket, Tendulkar still watches matches avidly and makes sharp observations on his batting style.
The Master does not broadcast these remarks publicly, but if the player approaches him, it is always known that he is ready to help.“Tendulkar brings honesty to the table and keeps things simple.”Reminisce about the 2011 World Cup in India, when Yuvraj Singh had a terrible time with the bat a year before the event. Questions arose about whether he should join the team. During the camp, as the left-hander struggled with a decline in form and fitness, Tendulkar told him: “You will matter when it matters most.”
Yuvraj went on to become the player of the tournament.In 2014, Virat Kohli said he was a psychological wreck after he managed to score just 134 runs in 10 innings in his first tour of England as James Anderson was traumatized outside off-stump. After his return, Kohli sent an SOS message to Tendulkar and the two worked for a few days in the inside nets at the Bandra Kurla complex.Kohli later said that their talks were not just about technical adjustments or batting.
“It was about how he dealt with times like this… One of the things he told me was that you should always do what feels right for you.” Before the game, if you don’t want to hit the net, don’t hit the net. “You should never do it just because there are other people hitting the nets for half an hour,” Kohli said during an interview with The Cricket Monthly.Kohli then went on to smash four hundreds in Australia in the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Ahead of the tour of England in 2025, newly crowned Test captain Shubman Gill also admitted that he sought Tendulkar’s advice on how to succeed in English conditions.His advice to Gill on defending upright and scoring square enabled him to score 754 runs in the five-match series.“The best thing about Master is that he knows the conditions he is talking about. He makes people who approach him understand how to play in certain conditions, he respects them and they do what suits them,” says Atul Ranade, a childhood friend of Tendulkar and the fielding coach of Mumbai’s Ranji team.Modern day cricketers have a lot of coaches they can relate to. Why then do they still turn to Tendulkar for advice? “What he brings to the table is honesty, and he will keep it as simple as possible, making it easy for the person to understand,” Ranade explained.Batsman Prithvi Shaw, who scored a Test hundred on debut in October 2018 against West Indies, was not only given technical advice during training at the Mumbai Cricket Association Stadium, but was also asked to mend his ways.
“Waapas track pe aaja (Better get back on track),” Tendulkar reportedly told the India Under-19 captain who won the World Cup in New Zealand in early 2018.“He’s always there for them; he always has time to give back to the game. He’s always willing to help in any way he can,” Ranade said.In 2014, Sachin and Ranade were playing badminton a few months after the batsman had retired, Ranade recalls. “He (Tendulkar) told us: ‘Don’t bother me unless one phone call comes.’ Confused, we asked: ‘Who will call?’”“Rohit will call,” Ranade replied. Rohit Sharma had just started opening for India in the ODIs, and as expected, his call came. Tendulkar stopped the match to talk to him for about half an hour.Ranade said Tendulkar also played a key role in bringing Sharma to Mumbai Indians from Deccan Chargers in 2011. Sharma went on to lead the team to five IPL championships.