Free Playing It My Way: My Autobiography by Sachin Tendulkar

tears. Why on earth did I play that shot when I was just twelve runs short? By the time I reached the boundary rope, tears were flowing down my cheeks. I’m glad there weren’t too many cameras then, as these days a cameraman would definitely have picked up an embarrassing shot of me in tears. On reaching the dressing room, I went straight to the bathroom and cried for a good few minutes. Missing out on what should have been my first Test hundred was just too painful. It was only later that I was told I would have been the youngest Test centurion ever. It was a missed opportunity and I remember telling John Wright, after he took over as coach of India in 2005, that he really shouldn’t have taken that catch!
    We eventually lost the three-Test match series 0–1 and then played the Rothmans Cup one-day tri-series, with Australia as the third team. As in the first Test, I was out for a duck in the first ODI against New Zealand at Dunedin on 1 March, caught and bowled by Shane Thomson, who was bowling medium pace. The only difference was that this time I had lasted one more ball. In the end, we lost the game by 108 runs.
    I made a better fist of it in my next match, on 6 March 1990, an important one in the context of the tournament. We had lost to Australia in the second game and now needed to beat New Zealand to stay in contention for the final. I made 36 runs off thirty-nine balls, in the process attacking their seam bowlers for the first time and hitting them for quite a few boundaries. We won the game by one run, with Martin Snedden run out and Richard Hadlee bowled in the final over by Kapil Dev, who was declared Man of the Match for his all-round performance. For the first time my innings had been of use to the team in an official ODI. I couldn’t do much celebrating, though, because I damaged my right quadriceps during the game and had to be carried off the field. I couldn’t walk at all by the evening and was on crutches for the next few days. It was the first serious injury of my career and my tournament was over.
    While we were in New Zealand, Asha Bhosle, one of the all-time great Indian singers, happened to be performing in Wellington and the team decided to go to her concert. It was the first time I had seen her live and I just loved the experience. Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar, another of India’s finest singers, are still two of my favourites and to see them perform is always very special.
    On my return to India, my father told me that I had to hone my God-given cricketing ability. He was right. It was time for more hard work to master the skills needed to face the fast swinging ball and I was determined to put in the hours in the nets.
India in England, July–August 1990
    After the New Zealand series, India travelled to England for what was our most important assignment of the year. India had won a Test series in England in 1986 and we were all looking forward to repeating the feat. We had a training camp in Bangalore just before the series and Bishan Bedi continued with his policy of making us run miles every day. We had to jog in a line at Cubbon Park, opposite the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and the last man in the line had to sprint to the front. The same drill was followed for all the players and the exhausting routine finally resulted in Manoj Prabhakar jokingly suggesting that he was so fast now he would reach the batsman before his delivery did.
    I had been to England twice before, in 1987–88 and 1988–89, as part of the Star Cricket Club, the team of Kailash Gattani (a former fast bowler who played first-class cricket for Rajasthan in Indian domestic cricket). In the first instance, I was sponsored by the Kolkata-based Young Cricketers Organization, who contributed my airfare. Among other things, I remember the tour for the food we ate. We stayed in school and college dormitories and had breakfast in their dining halls. For the first time in my life I was served cold meat for breakfast. That meat