Sachin: First tour of Pak a memorable one

Sachin: First tour of Pak a memorable one

Sachin Tendulkar took a trip down memory lane and for a change, it was not cricket that he talked about.

The veteran batsman, instead, spoke of his gastronomic experiences while travelling with the team all over the country and the world in his over two-decade career.

And the interesting trivia included how he skipped lunch and polished off a large bowl of ice-cream before facing the pace attack from Pakistani trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar at the high-voltage match between India and Pakistan in 2003 World Cup.

“At lunch time I only had ice-cream. I didn’t have anything else. I had my headphones on, and didn’t want to listen to anyone. I knew what was wanted at that particular moment. All I did was grab a huge bowl of ice-cream and finished it. I had told when the umpires walk out please let me know. The umpires walked out and I removed my headphones and walked out to bat. In the meanwhile the ice-cream was delicious,” he said.

He said the team had street food in South Africa to celebrate the victory.

“Immediately after the match, we decided wherever we go this evening, we have to be together. It was a big day and we needed to celebrate together. So we went and had street food together. We enjoyed ourselves. That match was one of the most important games of that tournament.

“People had told me a year before the match, that come what may, you need to win this match. So after that, the whole team decided wherever we go, whatever we do we will be together. This was one of those big nights where every little thing we remember and we cherish those moments because it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

The senior cricketer further said he gorged on Pakistani food and had piled on a few kilos on his debut tour there.

“The first tour of Pakistan was a memorable one. I used to have a heavy breakfast, which was kheema paratha and then have a glass of lassi and then think of dinner. After practice sessions there was no lunch because it was heavy but also at the same time delicious. I wouldn’t think of having lunch or snack in the afternoon. I was only 16 and I was growing,” Tendulkar recalled.

“It was a phenomenal experience, because when I got back to Mumbai and got on the weighing scale I couldn’t believe myself. But whenever we have been to Pakistan, the food has been delicious. It is tasty and I have to be careful for putting on weight,” he said.

“In 1997 or 1998, we were in Delhi. The entire team was at Ajay Jadeja’s place for dinner and I had gone there half an hour earlier to prepare baingan bharta for the whole team,” he said.

Tendulkar said he cooks for his family on special occasions and his wife enjoys the fish curry he makes.

“I have cooked for her (wife Anjali). I still do sometimes. Not on a regular basis but sometimes I do cook breakfast for Sara (daughter), Arjun (son) and Anjali. Earlier it was on a regular basis but now only on special occasions.

“I cook various things like fish curry and prawn masala, which I obviously learnt from my mother. She taught me couple of things ages ago and I experimented with it and made Anjali try, which wasn’t too bad. She says it is the best fish curry she has had in her life,” he said.

The veteran batsman said in his pre-teen years, he only had Maharashtrian food and once he started travelling, he learnt to try new cuisines.

“I travelled to England and that was the first time I heard that cold chicken was also meant to be eaten. I got used to that. As the time went by I learnt to deal with all these things and develop a taste for that,” Tendulkar said.

“I think cricket was so important and so exciting that we used to forget about food. The evening was a little difficult. Those days you could afford to eat burgers but not at this stage.”

“With travelling and more exposure, I was open to trying out new things. In the 25 years of travelling I have tasted all kinds of cuisine and have enjoyed it. I appreciate good food and good taste. Sometimes it is good to eat whatever you like and not think about the diet,” he said adding that London is one of his favourite places in terms of variety of cuisines available.

His Mumbai teammates Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar normally accompany him to new restaurants or try new cuisine, Tendulkar said.

“Along with me, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, we try new restaurants and different cuisines. But most of the guys prefer either Italian or Thai or at the most Chinese. But we three and maybe Yuvraj Singh try different things,” he said.

Asked if he has tried to become a vegetarian, Tendulkar said, “There have been patches where I have tried to be vegetarian, to see how one feels. It is difficult for me because I have been brought up with non-vegetarian food. It is not I need to have non-veg every meal. I don’t mind good quality vegetarian meal, because it is healthy and keeps you light.”

Keywords: Sachin Tendulkar