LONDON: Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday revealed that a phone call from West Indies batting legend Vivian Richards helped him change his mind after he thought of quitting the game in 2007.
It has been well documented that Tendulkar changed his mind from quitting cricket in 2007 on the advice of his elder brother Ajit but the Indian batting maestro has not earlier spoken about Richard’s role in doing that.
Tendulkar said the 2007 World Cup was possibly the worst phase of his career and the game which had shown him the best days of his life was showing him the worst days as well.
“I felt that was it. At that stage lot of things happening around Indian cricket were not at all healthy. We needed some changes and I felt if those changes did not happen then I was going to quit cricket. I was almost 90 per cent sure of quitting cricket. But my brother told me in 2011 there is World Cup final in Mumbai, can you imagine holding that beautiful trophy in your hand?” Tendulkar said during a ‘India Today’ programme here.
“After that I went away to my farmhouse and that is when I got a call from Sir Viv, saying I know there is plenty of cricket left in you. We had a conversation for about 45 minutes and that was so heartwarming because when your batting hero calls you it means a lot. That was the moment things changed for me and from that moment onwards I also performed much much better,” Tendulkar recalled. (AGENCIES)
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