Tendulkar’s first interview was published in MiD DAY

While Tendulkar celebrated his 20 years of international cricket with a flurry of media interviews yesterday, we look back at a time which was very, very different

Tendulkar's first interview was published in MiD DAY

While Tendulkar celebrated his 20 years of international cricket with a flurry of media interviews yesterday, we look back at a time which was very, very different

IF you are a sucker for cricket nostalgia of the Sachin Tendulkar kind, the Taj Lands End was the place to be yesterday.

The batting maestro remembered every detail about his 20-year-old international career, an occasion he celebrates tomorrow.

"Rajbhai told me, 'you won't be going to the West Indies. We feel it's too early. There will be the Irani Trophy. Enjoy your cricket, do your best and good things will happen. It's important that you appear for your SSC examinations.' That was very good advice," he said.

It was during this period that MiD DAY produced a video of Tendulkar being interviewed by actor and sports buff Tom Alter at the P J Hindu Gymkhana in Mumbai.

Three years earlier, MiD DAY was the first newspaper to interview Tendulkaru00a0-- conducted at an Irani restaurant near Shivaji Park by sports journalist Sunil Warrier. Tendulkar was just 13 (see right).

Back to Alter. When the actor asked Tendulkar whether he was tired of people asking him questions and journalists asking him for interviews, Tendulkar said, "This is just the start." Some visionary! When it came to the West Indies tour, he was asked whether he felt it was the right time to go and young Tendulkar's confidence disallowed him from saying no to the interviewer. Not only that, he also said he won't have any trouble facing West Indian quicks like Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose.

Alter asked him whether he had a problem with Kapil Dev's outswing and inswing when the great bowled to him in the nets. "No, I didn't have a problem," he said.

A scanned copy of Tendulkar's first ever interview which was published in MiD DAY in 1986