Remembering Sachin's competitive streak on and off the field

I can claim to be one of the select few who played with or against Sachin Tendulkar during the school days and thus saw him behaving exactly the way a school boy should mdash full of pranks and mischief At the same time qualities like guts determination and neversaydie spirit that turned him into a cricketing idol were so evident even at that tender age It was a rewarding experience to be in his team travel with him and share the same dressing room for Mumbai West Zone and in the National junior tournaments organised by the BCCIu00a0 To begin with we were opponents Sachin was a member of the strong Shardashram Vidyamandir team led by Mayur Kadrekar while I was leading IES English Beating Shardashram was quite a task but we managed to beat them in the quarterfinal of the Giles Shield and then went on to win the tournament Sachin Tendulkar plays a game of tennis in Lahore on the 1989 tour of Pakistan PicGetty Images Our good performances for Mumbai and West Zone were rewarded when Sachin Jatin Paranjape and myself were selected for a monthlong U15 National camp conducted by BCCI at Indore We Mumbai boys were accommodated in one room and in the adjacent room we had East Zone players Sourav Ganguly and Avijit Chatterji One day Sourav and Avijit played a prank on the West Zone boys It was high time we got even Late at night we put our plan into action do I need to tell you who was the leader of the plan We collected buckets full of water from the bathroom and emptied them through the gap under the door of our adjacent room Next morning Sourav and his buddy found their kit bags floating in water Dada came out fuming and screaming but we kept a straight face We ldquokhadoosrdquo Mumbai boys hate to lose you see even off the field A few years ago when I met Sourav we remembered this incident and had a hearty laughu00a0During the same camp Sachin injured his toe For him wearing shoes became a painful task We had a practice match the next day The opponents had crafty spinners like Narendra Hirwani and Sunil Lahore who played for the Madhya Pradesh Ranji Trophy team and fast bowler Ashish Winston Zaidi who was nippy and lethal Sachin desperately wanted to play as he was very keen to face this quality attack He somehow convinced our coach Vasu Paranjape sir and got himself included in the playing XI Sachin scored a halfcentury He hobbled for his ones and twos and made his neversaydie spirit all the more visible as a 13yearold Touring England with Sachin for Star Cricket Club was another awesomeu00a0experience We were managed by Mr Kailash Gattani and Mr Nitin Dalal with Vasant Amladi Sir as chief coachmentor During this monthlong tour we played matches against much senior opponents However Sachin outperformed all his senior teammates On the tour we were often put up at college hostels that had excellent sportsrecreation facilities like tennis squash and badminton courts Sachin as all of us now know was a big John McEnroe fan After he picked up a racquet out of sheer curiosity one of our senior teammates who used to play tennis challenged Sachin The challenge was immediately accepted by our hero Age and tennis experience of our senior teammate did not deter him Sachin won the tennis match without wearing sports shoes He fired in his winners with his black leather shoes Another victory Sachin won another competition mdash this time in the hostel bathroom The challenge was to dip our heads in a sink full of water Whoever holds his breath longer wins Sachin defeated his opponents in the earlier rounds hands down Sameer Dighe had reached the lsquofinalrsquo from the other half and Sachin proved to be smarter in the final as well The otherwise spick and span bathroom was in an absolute mess and to our bad luck Kailash sir walked in only to see Sachin and Sameer fully drenchedu00a0I still remember the powerful square cut he executed against a Saurashtra leftarm fast bowler while batting for Mumbai U17 The fielder at point made an effort to stop the ball and endured a deep cut on his palm which started bleeding profusely as the ball raced to the boundary In another Mumbai U17 match I had taken a few wickets and would do my chances of getting into the West Zone team a lot of good if I scored some runs Sachin was as usual batting brilliantly but knowing that my selection depended on me scoring a few runs he sacrificed his wicket As we crossed he stopped and said ldquoKedar runs kar Kedar get runsrdquo Fortunately I got a decent score and was selected for West Zone Sachin always cared for his teammates When he was picked for his Ranji Trophy debut against Gujarat in 1988 Sachin wanted to play with Sairaj Bahutulersquos bat which he had used in one of his earlier matches Since Sairaj and me used to play for Podar College Sairaj handed over the bat to me to be given to Sachin who came to our house at Shivaji Park the next day to collect the bat Like a skilled craftsman he wanted to have the best equipment at his disposal while taking up an important assignment Sachin scored a century on his debut in first class cricket And as we say the rest is history Kedar Godbole was adjudged Mumbairsquos best junior cricketer for the 198586 seasonu00a0