At the recent condolence meeting on Ramakant Achrekar’s demise, the legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar revealed how his childhood coach had given him an important lesson at the very young early age.
On 2nd January, Tendulkar’s childhood coach Achrekar died at the age of 87-year-old. In the recent condolence meeting, Tendulkar revealed that how Achrekar’s advises helped him to become a very successful cricketer in the world.
Originally Tendulkar had a lower grip at batting which later Achrekar advised him to hold the bat higher. However, observing the decreasing performances, the coach advised him to return to his original lower grip.
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Tendulkar said, “I still remember when I started playing cricket, we had just one bat, which belonged to (my brother) Ajit (Tendulkar). It was a little bigger and my grip was low on the handle.
“Sir observed this for a few days and then took me aside and told me to try and hold the bat a little up.
“Sir observed me play and said it wasn’t working because I was not having (the same) control and my shots were not coming off.
“After seeing that I didn’t have the same control, Sir told me to forget whatever he had said and asked me to go back to the original grip.”
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Tendulkar feels that Achrekar gave him a big message with that which was – coaching doesn’t mean making changes. While Tendulkar had a long international cricket career of 24 years, he feels that it would be not possible if his grip changed permanently.
The 45-year-old said, “And (with this) sir gave a big message to not just me and to everybody that coaching doesn’t mean making changes. Sometimes it is important not to coach.
“If my grip would have changed then I think I would not have played so long. But sir had vision on how my game would be better and what suits me.”
Naresh Churi, Achrekar’s adopted son, revealed that the coach also recycled balls, which the other coaches didn’t even think.
Churi said, “Sir always used to preserve worn out balls, and had a bag full of such balls, which nobody would have liked to use. However, sir did what no coach has done even now back then — recycling of balls.
“We all used to peel off the outer surface of the ball and send the inner portion (small ball) to the factory in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh). He used to purchase the recycled balls at half price.”
