Sachin Tendulkar credited Ajit Wadekar, who passed away at 77 on Wednesday, for guiding him as manager/coach of the Indian team at a critical stage of his life. "Wadekar sir had multiple roles, but he was also our very good friend," Tendulkar told mid-day yesterday. "Our" included his childhood mate Vinod Kambli, who played a lot of his international cricket during the Wadekar era of coaching. A flood of memories came to Tendulkar's mind as he spoke about Wadekar in an endearing fashion.

"It took some time to know him [Ajit Wadekar] well. We were not so close on the 1992-93 tour of South Africa where he would tell me what had to be done. But after that, we slowly started enjoying his company. In the mid-1990s, Vinod Kambli and I would spend a lot of time with him during the evenings. He had a great sense of humour; he had fun with us and sometimes there would be some subtle messages thrown in," said Sachin Tendulkar.