Ravi Shastri Recalls When He Asked Sachin Tendulkar To ‘Shut Up’: ‘There Was Not A Word…’ | Cricket News

Sachin Tendulkar was asked to shut up by Ravi Shastri (Picture credit: AFP)

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has recalled an incident when he asked a young Sachin Tendulkar to ‘shut up’ in the face of some Australian sledging, saying how he faced the Aussies instead, during the early 90s. Throughout his 25-year career, he rarely lost his composure, or if he did, he never let it show.

Shastri recounted an incident from Tendulkar’s maiden tour of Australia in 1991–92, when a teenage Sachin was ready to take on the mighty Australians but was stopped by him.

That series marked Tendulkar’s arrival on the world stage with Test hundreds in Perth and Sydney, where Shastri too made his mark with a commanding 206.

“I remember playing at the SCG. It was Sachin’s first tour. I had just reached a hundred and Sachin had just come to bat. And he was being sledged by the Waugh brothers, Steve and Mark; ‘You little this, you little that’,” Shastri said while speaking during the Summer of Cricket Lunch hosted by Cricket Act. 

“And Mike Whitney had come on to the field as a 12th man. I was having a pow-pow with Allan Border until I reached my 100. He took the ball in his hand and said, ‘Get back into your crease; I’ll break your head,” Shastri added. 

The former India coach recalled how he sledged back the medium-pacer Whitney.

“I turned around there. There were mics and you could be fined. And in the centre of the pitch, I shouted across the SCG ‘Hey Mike! If you can claim to throw as well as you can bowl, you wouldn’t be the 12th man of Australia,” Shastri said.

When it comes to sledging, the Australians never hold back; it is part of their habit. The nonstop chatter from cricketers and fans alike can test anyone’s patience. Everyone deals with it in their own way and in this case, watching Shastri take the fight to the Aussies, fired up even the young Tendulkar to have a go himself.

“Sachin came to me and said, ‘Wait till I get to my hundred. I will also give them some of this. I told Sachin ‘Shut up. You’ve got enough class; your bat will do the talking. Let me do the talking,” Shastri said.