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“We Discussed…” Sachin Tendulkar Reveals Historic Meeting With Late Don Bradman

Aakash Saini

Don Bradman with Sachin Tendulkar [Source: @sachin_rt/x]Don Bradman with Sachin Tendulkar [Source: @sachin_rt/x]

Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest ambassadors of world cricket even post-retirement, turned 52 on Thursday, April 24. Widely regarded as one of the best batters to have graced the game, the legendary cricketer played 200 Tests, 463 ODIs and a T20I during the course of his 24-year international career.

During the twilight stage of his journey, Tendulkar reached the pinnacle of his career by lifting the coveted 2011 ICC ODI World Cup, in front of his home crowd.

Sachin Tendulkar recalls meeting with Bradman

Sachin Tendulkar garnered love and admirations across generations of cricket fans all around the globe during his playing days. Moreover, former Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman also expressed his admiration for the ‘Little Master’ in the late 1990s.

Bradman, who averaged 99.94 in Tests, compared Tendulkar’s batting style to that of himself, and described the legendary Indian player as one of his two favourite cricketers of all time.

In 1998, Sachin Tendulkar was invited by Don Bradman himself for a friendly meeting in Australia. During an interview with the Telegraph, Tendulkar revealed that he and Bradman discussed extensively about batting, and how good batters tend to read the ball by simply looking at the wrist position of the bowlers. He said:

“We discussed batting. How good batters could read the ball by looking at the bowler’s wrist position and also see which way the ball is spinning in the air and hence could read the delivery as soon as it was released.”

Don Bradman, a veteran of 52 Tests, eventually passed away in February 2001 at the age of 92 after getting hospitalized with pneumonia.

While Bradman holds the highest Test average in history, that of 99.94, Sachin Tendulkar also holds a slew of cricketing records. Tendulkar racked up 34,357 international runs and accrued 100 centuries across all formats, both world records that stand to date. The Indian batting great announced his retirement in late-2013, i.e., a couple of years after lifting the 2011 World Cup title in Mumbai.