When an advice from a waiter helped Sachin Tendulkar rectify a batting flaw

What’s the story?

Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar today recalled how an advice from a waiter helped him rectify his batting flaw. He was in Chennai once during his playing days when a waiter at a restaurant came up to him and gave him the advice.

"If you have an open mind you can develop so many things. In Chennai, it was a waiter who came up to me and said if you don't mind and don't get offended I want to tell you something. I said go ahead. He said my elbow guard restricts my bat swing. And he was 100 percent right,” Sachin was quoted by IndiaToday.

"I knew I was feeling uncomfortable but I never thought of doing it myself. A few years down the line I got hit a couple of times on my elbow guard and it hurt. That's when I realised padding on elbow guard is inadequate. I instantly redesigned my elbow guard. I needed to re-open it and work on it.”

In case you did not know

Sachin was one of those very few batsmen in his era who laid huge emphasis on protective equipment. When most of his teammates would call for a cap against the spinners, Sachin would still have his helmet on.

At the beginning of his career, he did not wear an elbow guard but later on, he started wearing one when touring in countries like England and Australia where the pitches had a lot of bounce.

The heart of the matter

The legendary batsman was at a restaurant in Chennai once when a waiter came to him and gave him a piece of advice. He said the elbow guard that Sachin was wearing at that time was restricting his bat swing.

Sachin took the advice seriously and went on to redesign the guard so that he could play the game a little more freely.

What’s next?

Sachin had a lot of problems with his elbow throughout his career. He also needed quite a few surgeries which kept him out of the game. However, the Mumbai-born batsman came back to score tons of runs which helped him get to an astonishing figure of 100 international centuries.

Sportskeeda’s take

Sachin while speaking about the incident also said that in a country like India everyone from a ‘ panwala’ to CEOs has their take on how to play cricket but it was important that he was open to that piece of advice.