Sachin Tendulkar gave a shining example of the same by recalling an untold incident of how he once refused an advertisement because it was disrespectful to the sport. Tendulkar stated that the incident happened right after his iconic ‘desert storm’ innings against Australia at the Sharjah Cricket Ground in 1998. The 2011 World Cup-winner revealed he forced the makers to change the script which they did.
“It happened in 1998 after the desert storm tour in Sharjah. We came back and one of the sponsors wanted to shoot an ad where cricket balls were coming at me and with a fly swatter, I’m hitting them outside the stadium. So, I turned down the ad, I said you have to change the script because this is disrespecting my sport and I worship my sport. I will not be shooting for this ad,” Tendulkar said at an Infosys event in a chat with Gaurav Kapoor.
“Fortunately, they did (change the script). I don’t think that after shooting that ad, I would have been able to go back home or even go back to my coach. That wasn’t something they had taught me. They had inculcated right values and I stand by those values,” he added.
Tendulkar’s son Arjun created history earlier this week by scoring a century on his Ranji Trophy debut for Goa against Rajasthan. The man himself also had scored a ton in his debut in India’s Premier first class competition in December 1988 aged 15 in a match between Mumbai and Gujarat.
