The game of cricket in India is no less than a religion and thus the esteemed cricketers enjoy the near god-like status. However, this fanaticism can become a headache sometimes, even for the opposition players.
Recently, out-of-favour England pacer Tim Bresnan revealed that he and Australian umpire Rod Tucker had received death threats after batting legend Sachin Tendulkar was denied his 100th international century during a Test match in 2011.
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Bresnan said Tendulkar, who had hit his 99th ton during the 2011 World Cup against South Africa, was batting on 91 in the second innings of the fourth Test at the Oval when he was adjudged LBW by Tucker.
"This ball, it was probably missing leg anyway, and umpire Hill (Tucker), Aussie lad, shot him out. He was on 80-odd as well (91), definitely going to get it (his century). We win the series and go to number one in the world," Bresnan said on the Yorkshire Cricket: Covers Off podcast.
"We both got death threats, me and this umpire, we got death threats for ages after. I got them on Twitter and he had people writing to him to his home address and stuff, getting proper death threats going, 'How dare you give him out? It was missing leg'."
Bresnan further claimed that Tucker had to intensify his security due to the death threats.
"I caught up with him a few months later and he was like, 'Mate, I've had to get a security guard and stuff.' He had police protection around his gaff in Australia," the 35-year-old said.
Stuck on 99 hundreds for quite some time, Tendulkar eventually notched up his 100th international ton during a 2012 Asia Cup fixture against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Sachin Tendulkar called time on his illustrious carrier in 2013 but not before he played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs for India, scoring the world record number of runs (15921 in Tests and 18426 in ODIs), centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs) and half-centuries (66 in Tests and 96 in ODIs).
(With PTI inputs)
