Often called the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar is pretty much everyone’s favourite. What happens when the God of Cricket himself joins you for a game? Yes, it happened to a few lucky youngsters in Mumbai!
For these restaurant workers, a routine night of playing some cricket to unwind after work became one to remember forever when the humble Master Blaster joined them.
A screengrab from the video of Sachin playing with the youngsters
The video of the quick game, which went viral almost instantly, shows Sachin getting out of his car and shaking hands with the boys, before taking his stance in front of a plastic road divider. As he looked like he rolled the years back, Sachin played a few shots before taking selfies with them. Sameer Shaikh, the manager of the food delivery joint where the youngsters all under the age of 25 work, says, “We were wondering who this person was who parked his car in the middle of the road in such a narrow lane,” he chuckles, now recounting the incident. “He was possibly clicking a selfie or making a video while in the car.”
The youngsters all under the age of 25 work at a food joint
And as the car came closer, it was a rather filmy moment for the gang, who regularly play cricket to unwind after their 12-hour shifts. Salman Ahmed Syed says, “One of Sachin’s friends came out from the car and told us ‘There is a man who played in the Indian cricket team and now wants to play with you. Will you allow him to?’ We said okay, and asked the man to call the cricketer out. We had no idea it was Sachin!”
After a quick few selfies, the cricketer departed but not without setting social media on fire with his warmth and humbleness
Another employee, Ramanuj Dhuriya adds, “Sachin was apparently going to meet his friend, but stopped when he saw us and said he’d rather play with us first!”
He may have barely played four balls but the ace batsman gave the awestruck boys something to remember him by. “He spoke to us in Marathi and asked us ‘ball kon pakadnar’ (who will catch the ball?) He did not miss a single ball!” Sameer says with a shy smile. “He asked us what we do and we told him about our food joint.”
However, their moment of quick cricket was interrupted when cars stopping by realised it was indeed Sachin on the streets playing cricket, and ran towards him for pictures. A woman in the car came to a quick halt and jumped out on spotting him, screaming, “Sachin, I love you.” That gathered the attention of other folks as well, causing Sachin to quickly take pictures with his ‘team mates’, before he zoomed off.
