Sachin's first ever interview: When Tendulkar was told to be more confident

Sachin Tendulkar, who is celebrating 50 years, recently recalled his first ever interview to a journalistThe journalist who interviewed him is Sunil Warrier, now with The Times of India in NagpurWhat was Sachin Tendulkar like as a prodigious schoolboy talent?What was the Master Blaster's first ever interview like? Listen to find outSachin Tendulkar recently reminisced to journalists about his first ever interview. He remembered the name of the journalist who had interviewed him, Sunil Warrier. As it so happens, Sunil is now the resident editor of the Nagpur edition of The Times of India, and he takes us down memory lane to interviewing a shy, reticent schoolboy who would go on to become the Master Blaster.Sumit Bhattacharya: How does it feel to be remembered by Sachin Tendulkar himself?Sunil Warrier: Oh, well, wonderful! I got an audio clip from one of our colleagues in TOI Mumbai and was quite pleasantly surprised that Sachin actually remembered my name. But it's not the first time I've been connected to the interview. In Ajit Tendulkar's book about Sachin, too, he has mentioned that I was the first to interview Sachin. Then there were a couple of other authors who have mentioned about Sachin's first interview. I was happy to lie low all this while but very happy that Sachin remembered me on his 50th birthday.You presciently headlined the piece 'Sachin – a new star on the horizon.' And Sachin says he had no idea what he was getting into when he went for that interview with you. So what are your memories of that interview?I have wonderful memories of that day. The only thing I cannot recollect is whether it was '87 or '88 [Sachin himself says '85-'86] that is the only thing I can't remember about it.I used to work in an evening newspaper and we had to present stories in a different way. Not like the morningers which would have all the spot news, current news, what is happening. So, we always had to look for something different. At that time there was another rival newspaper which also used to come out in the afternoon. And a journalist who worked there was a veteran called Sharad Kotnis; in fact, he was the first, I would say, to write about Sachin. Today what we call table-top journalism is what Sharad Kotnis wrote that day – just like a simple profile-ish of a 13–14-year-old boy who's scoring runs by the dozen and he's going to do big things. I read that article and I saw that there is nothing informative about the boy, his family and all that. That's when I decided that I should be doing an interview with him.Sachin says he met you at this Irani chai shop. Yes. What I did was I finished my morning duty a little earlier than usual so that I could reach at lunchtime of the match that Sharadashram were playing at the Shivaji Park ground, which is the nursery of Mumbai cricket. I reached just at the stroke of lunch. I watched him play for some time and then when he was coming for the lunch break I just spoke to him. Told him, I would like to speak to you. He was very shy, very quiet and he very politely said okay; he just said that. My grandparents used to stay very close, so what I did was after this conversation I went to my grandparents' house, had my meal, my afternoon nap and then I came back in the evening to the ground. The match was just getting over and I was just waiting. I thought I'll be sitting in the pavilion and talking to him but suddenly I realised that Sachin had called out to someone as 'Dada' [elder brother in Marathi] and Ajit Tendulkar, who is his brother, turned up and started talking to me. I didn't expect this. I thought I'll be speaking to Sachin. So I told Ajit that I'm from so-and-so newspaper and I would like to speak to him for some time. So he said, okay, where do we sit. So I suggested that we can sit here or we can just go to that tea shop which is close by. So both of them wrapped up, the kit bag was all tied up, and then we started generally chatting and we were walking towards the Irani tea shop which is not very far from the ground. Sachin sat very quietly, again not talking much. And I'm asking questions. All the answers are being given by Ajit! You might find this amusing, even when I look back at it I find it very amazing, I admonished Sachin in a very mild, humorous way, saying in Marathi that you are a 13-year-old boy, you're growing up. Come on, you've got to be confident! You have to talk to me! Soon you will have a lot of media people talking to you. You should be confident and answer in English. So he just mumbled a few more words. Ajit also prompted him in Marathi, saying come on, you say. We had chai and bun maska. The whole thing would have lasted maybe 45 minutes. This is a most tempting question to ask, and this is your opportunity to brag, Sunil! Did you realise how big the kid – that 13-14-year-old kid – in front of you would eventually become? So, this question has been asked to me by some people and I have jokingly always said, had I not written about Sachin Tendulkar he would have never gone on to score all the runs! Obviously, I'm just joking. Whether it was me or Sharad Kotnis or any other journalist writing about him in his formative years, Sachin would always have been Sachin. The promise was always there. (For the full conversation, listen to the podcast)Audio production: Anil Chauhan