Sachin Tendulkar has a major contribution of coach Ramakant Achrekar in his life. The former Indian cricketer acknowledges it too and recently said coaches and gurus are like parents, at a book release function here.

“Coaches, gurus are like our parents, because we end up spending so much time with them, we learn so many things from them,” Tendulkar said.

Sachin was present at the launch of a book “Even When There Is A Doctor”, authored by Dr. Yashwant Amdekar, Dr. Rajesh Chouhan and Krishnan Sivaramakrishnan on child health-care for parents.

“(Achrekar) Sir was strict at times, extremely strict and also caring and loving. Sir did not say well-played to me ever, (but) I knew (when) Sir has taken me to have bhel-puri or paani-puri, Sir is happy, I have done something nice on the field,” he said.

Tendulkar was coached by Achrekar at Shivaji Park in Dadar, central Mumbai. “I was a naughty child, difficult to manage....I was extremely lucky to have a balanced family, my father who was always extremely calm, who never got angry, agitated, and so did my mother...they gave me freedom, pampered me, but never spoiled me,” he recollected.

“When the situation demanded to be firm they were firm,” Tendulkar added. He also recollected an instance from childhood which, he said, taught him to use freedom with responsibility.

“I must have been 13 or so when I had to go to Indore to attend a national camp for a month and those were the days when mobiles were not available. I was going for a month and my mother was worried, and my father was telling her that he is the sharpest and cleverest among all of us, he knows, he is mature guy, I felt brilliant...with that freedom somewhere (in) my subconscious mind it registered that with freedom comes responsibility and I should not misuse my freedom,” he said.

He credited his wife Anjali for bringing up his children Sara and Arjun. “I wouldn’t want to take any credit, the person behind me (Anjali) — I would like to give her all the credit and more so because we both were doing well in our careers and when you know that you have a promising future and that is when an individual decides to take a back seat (in career),” he said, referring to his paediatrician wife’s decision to devote herself to parenting. Anjali, who happens to be a student of Dr. Amdekar, was also present on the occasion.

(With PTI inputs)