Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar is considered to be one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Many budding cricketers ape his technique and style hoping to achieve even half of his success.
Recently, even Virat Kohli, one of the best batsmen of the current generation, credited Tendulkar for correcting his technique following a dismal tour of England.
But even the greatest cricketer of all time was not averse to taking advice, no matter where it came from. At an event in Mumbai on Monday, he recounted the story of how a waiter at a Chennai hotel walked up to him and gave him unsolicited advice on how to go about improving his bat swing.
“If you have an open mind, you can develop so many things. In Chennai it was a waiter who came up to me and said ‘if you don’t mind and don’t get offended I want to tell you something’. I said ‘go ahead.’ He said my elbow guard restricts my bat swing,” said Tendulkar.
“And he was 100 per cent right.”
The batting maestro added, “I knew I was feeling uncomfortable but I never thought of doing it myself. A few years down the line I got hit a couple of times on my elbow guard and it hurt. That’s when I realised that the padding on my elbow guard is inadequate,” he said while speaking at a promotional event.
“I instantly redesigned my elbow guard. I needed to re-open it and work on it, get the fibre and cushion on either side to absorb the impact. In our country, everyone from panwala to CEOs will give you advice. But one should still be open about ideas.”