Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar released a book Cricket at Fever Pitch, a compilation of articles written by sports writer and chairman of Mid-Day Multimedia Group, Khalid A-H Ansari.
MUMBAI: Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar released a book Cricket at Fever Pitch, a compilation of articles written by sports writer and chairman of Mid-Day Multimedia Group, Khalid A-H Ansari, here on Tuesday.
Recalling one of his meetings with Ansari, who has covered several Olympic Games apart from cricket events for Mid-Day and the now-defunct sports magazine Sportsweek, Tendulkar said he used to look forward to reading the sports magazine in his childhood.
"Sportsweek was a magazine we all used to read in the 1980s when I was a boy," said Tendulkar, after releasing the book, published by Popular Prakashan.
"I remember having supper once with Mr Ansari in Antigua as early as 7 pm. I was dead tired that day after having to bowl Anil Kumble's quota of overs following the broken jaw suffered by Anil," Tendulkar, recuperating from a shoulder operation, recalled at the Cricket Club of India.
The incident he was referring to happened on India's last visit to the Caribbean in 2002.
Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, who has written the book's foreword, said it was a sign of times that the book has Indian cricket's new pin-up boy wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni on its cover and not Tendulkar.
"I mentioned it to Tendulkar that till a few months ago it would have been him on the cover. Now it's MS Dhoni whose photo adorns that cover of the book. I told him how times change", the former India skipper said.
Gavaskar said that ''since I met Mr Ansari in 1971 we have been great friends.''
''I also had the pleasure of being the editor of the Sportsweek magazine in the 1980s and we had a great time and came up with some brilliant issues,'' Gavaskar remembered.
Gavaskar added that when he started the CHAMPS Foundation to help the needy sportsmen, there were only two names which he thought of for as trustees for their integrity -- one was Khalid Ansari and the other was Nana Chudasama.
Ansari, speaking of his experiences on writing the book, said that it was his close friend, the late Dr Rafiq Zakaria, who made him write this book.
''Since I had always resisted writing an autobiography because I thought it was an act of supreme egotism, Dr Zakaria prevailed upon me to write a book as I owed it to the future generations,'' he recounted.
''The book, therefore, is a collection of my articles over the last 40 years and it records some milestones in the rich history of the Indian cricket and I hope it will entertain and inform,'' he said.
Former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Raj Singh Dungarpur, Popular Prakashan Publisher Harsha Hatkar and commentator Harsha Bhogle also spoke on the occasion.
Former cricketers like Dilip Vengsarkar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Dilip Sardesai, Polly Umrigar and Bapu Nadkarni were present on the occasion.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}