Delhi: Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar have been friends since childhood. Both of them played cricket together since the age of 10 and saw many ups and downs in their career together. However, their friendship reached the verge of breaking at one time, when Kambli accused Sachin in a reality show that he did not support him in difficult times. Its impact was so deep that both of them did not talk to each other for many years. Even Kambli was not invited to Sachin’s retirement speech and the party organized later.
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With time the distance between the two ended and now they have come closer again. But, this was not the first time that Kambli had angered Sachin. Recently, when the news of Kambli’s ill health came to light, I remembered an old story of Sanjay Manjrekar, which he had told on Kambli’s ‘fun personality’.
Sachin got angry in 1992 World Cup
Sanjay Manjrekar shared an anecdote related to the 1992 World Cup in an interview. He told how Kambli repeatedly advised Sachin and him on how to play cricket, as he himself was not a part of the playing eleven.
Manjrekar said, “This is about the 1992 World Cup. Kambli was in the team, but he did not get a chance to play in the first few matches. He was very disappointed by this. Sachin and I were regular players, so we were playing matches. But, after every match, Kambli would come to meet us and question our batting. He would say, ‘What are you batting? Could have scored runs faster. He did not even spare Sachin.”
Criticism even after good performance
Manjrekar further said that in a match when he and Sachin performed well against Zimbabwe and won the match easily, Kambli did not miss the opportunity to criticize.
He said, “Once Kambli told Sachin, ‘John could have hit an ordinary bowler like Trikos out of the ground, but you were taking singles.’ Sachin replied, ‘Our aim was to win the match.’ But, Kambli was not ready to accept. Kambli was probably the only person who angered Sachin.”
Sachin and Manjrekar took funny revenge
Finally, Kambli got a chance to play in the World Cup against Pakistan. But, he himself could not display the fast batting that he advised on the field. He scored only 24 runs on 41 balls.
Manjrekar jokingly said, “After the match, Sachin and I called Kambli to the corner and said, ‘What happened? You hit big sixes in the nets. What happened in the match? Kambli replied, ‘He was bowling tight.’ That was his simple answer. This was Kambli’s personality – always unique.”