Circa August 14, 1990. Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester. At 183/6, India were in serious trouble. The 408-run target seemed miles away. That’s when Manoj Prabhakar walked in to join Sachin Tendulkar.
“There were no specific instructions from the dressing room,” Prabhakar recalls. The seniors were cursing themselves for not having spent more time at the crease. “I had only one thing on my mind: partnership. But I knew I had to tell the 17-year-old boy to curb his shots as the ball was swinging all over the place,” adds the all-rounder who scored an unbeaten 67 (128 balls, 8x4) as India forced a draw. Tendulkar, of course, scored his maiden Test hundred, a sparkling undefeated 119 (189 balls, 17x4) as India finished with the scoreboard reading 343/6.
“The moment England decided to take the second new ball, I went up to Sachin and cautioned him. I advised to be a little careful against Angus Fraser. But when he dispatched the very second ball to the boundary, I just decided to let him play his own game and enjoy his batting,” Prabhakar says.
Tendulkar’s match-saving ton came against a formidable attack comprising Fraser, Devon Malcolm, Eddie Hemmings and Chris Lewis. “It was his first hundred, but I knew it was the first of many,” Prabhakar adds. For the record, the duo added 160 runs for the seventh wicket.
“He just played his own game throughout his career. To me, he never looked under any kind of pressure on any surface or on any occasion. I can’t forget that match in Sharjah where Sachin was hit on the head by a Wasim Akram delivery. But the very next ball, he smashed Akram out of the park. The Pakistani great had barely completed his follow through. That is classic Sachin. He has always countered his opponents with his bat. No talking for him,” Prabhakar says.
So when did he realise that Tendulkar was born to play cricket? “It was during a Ranji Trophy game between Delhi and Bombay that I first saw him. Maninder Singh, the best left-arm spinner of the time, was unplayable then. But here was a kid who decided to step out of the crease and loft Maninder for a six. We were shocked. Hitting Maninder out of ground during his heyday was no child’s play. Only someone blessed with the technique of, say, a Sunil Gavaskar could do that.”
Even though Tendulkar fell in the 30s that day, Prabhakar knew he had arrived. “The manner in which he way he easily countered the yorkers bowled by Curtly Ambrose, Waqar Younis and Akram in subsequent years, I think no batsman ever has. He behaved like an adult even in his teens,” Prabhakar adds.
What next for this genius? Prabhakar doesn’t see Tendulkar taking up a coaching job. “A genius can never be a good coach,” Prabhakar says rather philosophically. “He was a legend, he is a legend and he will remain a legend. His retirement is not going to change anything for him,” he signs off.
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