When CCI bent the rules for Sachin Tendulkar

MUMBAI: Even as a teen, Sachin Tendulkar's prodigious talent was there for everyone to see. The critical thing was: he needed a stage to exhibit it. "He was playing for the MIG Club, which participated in the lower-division tournaments. I requested Pravin Barve (secretary of the MIG Club) to let him play for the Cricket Club of India (CCI). Barve agreed to the idea," recalled former Mumbai captain Milind Rege, who was the cricket in-charge of the CCI at that time. "I spoke to his coach Ramakant Achrekar, whose only condition was that Sachin should get a spot in the first XI. Milind promised that Sachin would get to play," Barve reminisced.

Rege took Tendulkar to the CCI cricket committee, which was headed by former Test player Madhav Apte, also the president of the CCI at the time. There was just one technical glitch. The club had strict rules at that time and one of them stated clearly that the dressing room could not be used by anyone who was under 18. Even the 'playing membership' of the CCI was given only to players who were above 18. Sachin was 15 then.

"I and Raj Singh Dungarpur, who was a member of the CCI executive committee and succeeded me as the CCI president, had a discussion about Sachin. His talent was so evident. We wanted to give him exposure and the chance to play for a club for which many greats had played for. We decided to 'bend the rules' in his case and invited him to be a 'playing member.' The executive committee, based on mine and Raj Singh's assessment, decided to make an exception in his case," Apte revealed.

Tendulkar didn't look back from there on and Apte says he draws satisfaction till date that his decision "didn't prove to be wrong." "The first time I saw him play was at the Shivaji Park when I was leading CCI during the Purshottam Shield quarterfinals. Those who had seen him bat at the inter-school level knew about his talent. Hemant Kenkre (who led Sachin at CCI) asked me to have a look at him. He wasn't even 15 then, but cracked a brilliant 70-odd. Later, my teammates wanted to know my opinion about him. I said: 'If this boy keeps a stable head on his shoulders, he will play for India very soon. I am glad to say, he hasn't let any of us down," Apte says.

Rege, who played a key role in getting a young Tendulkar to play for CCI and later Mumbai too (as a selector), refuses to take any credit for the 'making of Sachin.' "Except his brother Ajit and Achrekar, who taught him cricket, nobody deserves any credit in Tendulkar's case. We were just facilitators in his path. Like all greats, he was a self-made man. He was completely different to any other kid of his age. He was a prodigy I haven't seen before or since," Rege says.

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