Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar ruled the hearts of cricket fans all over the world and to Indian fans, he was the cricket god. From 1989 to 2013, Tendulkar carried the expectations of more than one billion fans on his shoulders and came out with flying colors the majority of times.
During an interview with Graham Bensinger, Sachin Tendulkar shared a story about Virat Kohli, whom many see as his successor. Tendulkar played his last Test match in Mumbai in 2013 against the West Indies, which was also his 200th Test.
He revealed that he was soaking in all the emotions in one corner of the dressing room when Virat Kohli approached him with a gift. The said gift was a sacred thread which his father Prem Kohli had given him and now Virat wanted to pass it onto Tendulkar.
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Recalling the occasion of his final match as an international cricketer, Tendulkar said: “I was sitting in one corner alone with a towel on my head and wiping tears and I was really emotional. And at that time, Virat had come to me and Virat gave me the sacred thread that his father had given him.”
Tendulkar revealed that he kept the thread for some time and then returned it back to Virat, saying that it is his property and a memory of his late father and only belongs to him. It is common knowledge that Virat Kohli lost his father in his teenage, while was playing a match. He completed the last rites of his father and returned to finish the match the next day.
“And I kept that for a while and then returned that to him again. I said, ‘This is priceless and this has to stay with you and no one else. This is your property. And you should have it till your last breath.’ And I gave it back to him. So that was an emotional moment, something which will be always there in my memory, forever,” Sachin said.
Meanwhile, talking to Graham Bensinger in his own interview, Virat Kohli had also talked about this incident of presenting Tendulkar with his father’s thread.
Virat Kohli said “I looked up to Sachin ever since I was a kid and wanted to represent India at the highest level like him. Everyone in the team looked up to him as the team was full of young players at the time. When Sachin was playing his last Test series against West Indies in 2013, we all knew that he is going to retire after that.”
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“But it impacted us all on the last day of the last match which was in Mumbai. We all realized that Sachin will never play for India ever again and it made us emotional. I wanted to give him something valuable and the only thing I had was a religious thread given to me by my father. I thought this is the most valuable possession I have and I decided to give it to Sachin,” Kohli added.
Kohli also revealed Sachin’s reaction and said: “He reacted like any of us would have reacted at the moment. You never imagine that one day someone will come to me and say that I had an impact on his or her life and changed it for good. When I said this to Sachin he became emotional which was a natural reaction for anyone in his position.”
Here is the video of Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli talking about the incident:
