Nearly a decade after Vinod Kambli accused his childhood friend Sachin Tendulkar of not supporting him enough during his cricketing career on a reality show, the duo have patched up their differences, reported the Times of India.
Kambli confirmed that the Mumbai batsmen had reached a truce mutually, “Yes, everything is fine between us and I’m happy with it,” the 45-year-old was quoted as saying. “We hugged each other. We want to tell people that we’re back. It was mutual, and I’m very glad about it.”
In 2009, Kambli stunned cricket lovers in India on a reality TV show by stating that Tendulkar had not been by his side when the chips were down. “We are very close... we were very close. He could have done a little more, but he didn’t,” Kambli had said.
Kambli and Tendulkar rose into prominence during school cricket by amassing a then world record 664-run stand in 1988. The sole owner of 100 international hundreds made his Test debut in 1989 as a 16-year-old, while Kambli first featured in five-day cricket only in 1993, for which the latter had famously remarked, “Sachin Tendulkar took the elevator, I took to the stairs”.
Tendulkar, surprisingly, did not mention Kambli in his farewell speech after bidding adieu to the game in 2013. A tearful Kambli hit out at his old friend on television, “I am deeply hurt. I was expecting my name to be part of his farewell speech. If anything for our famous partnership.
“It’s that world record partnership that was the turning point of our careers. That’s when everyone came to know who is Vinod and Sachin. I had a hand in that and our careers started from there. I thought he could have mentioned that part at least.”