Posted On Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 03:38:36 AM
Take a look at the picture accompanying this article carefully. You will see a very, very tired looking Tendulkar, who was willing to give anything to go back to the comforts of the dressing room at the Motera stadium on Wednesday. It was a day when Mahela and Prasanna Jayawardenes had torn apart the Indian bowling attack on the flattest of tracks, and Tendulkar had spent the entire day fielding. But there was this huge packet waiting for him. It could have waited a little longer, because Tendulkar was tired, not in a mood to entertain any company. But this packet was special, we told him.
As part of the initiative, we had invited Amdavadis to send their wishes, greetings, gifts... whatever they wanted, to the master himself. Promise fulfilled On our part, we had promised our readers that we will ensure their gifts, greeting cards and messages reach Tendulkar. That promise was fulfilled on Wednesday, when Sports Editor Tapan Joshi handed over the box containing readers’ goodies to Tendulkar. Tendulkar was overwhelmed to see Amdavadis affection for him, and his brand of cricket. Apart from messages, there were hand-made greeting cards, images of deities, goodluck charms, shawls, shirts and even a message for Rahul Dravid!!! For a few minutes, Tendulkar forget all about a tough day on the field, when he saw his fans’ love for him. “Courier this to me,” said Tendulkar, referring to the gift box. Needless to say, we have duly couriered the gift box to Tendulkar’s residence in Mumbai, and as you read this, the gift box would have been at the master’s doorstep. A match-saving century on Friday is perhaps Tendulkar’s way of saying thank you to Amdavadis. After all, doesn’t Tendulkar always believe in letting his bat do the talking? |
