Renowned former India captain and manager Ajit Wadekar recently spoke about Sachin Tendulkar’s jovial nature and his love for pranks. Wadekar said that the batting legend once got 6 belly dancers during the team’s 1993 tour to New Zealand.
While speaking at a Cricket Club of India function, Wadekar said, ”There was this incident in New Zealand. It was on my birthday which is on April 1. We had a lovely nets session the day before and I retired to bed early as I used to fool others on All Fools’ Day.”
“I was half asleep when at the stroke of midnight, Sachin was at my room door with a serious look on his face. I asked Sachin why he was knocking at my door at such an odd hour and he said that something was wrong with Kapil Dev. I wore my pyjamas and went to Kapil’s room two floors away. When we entered the room, I saw the entire team with a cake and a champagne bottle. I was shocked and surprised”, continued Wadekar.
As expected, the audience couldn’t resist laughing and then the former captain went on to say. “Suddenly, from the connecting room, belly dancers, six of them, walked in and started dancing. I wondered this must have been Sachin’s idea as Sunny (Sunil Gavaskar), though a commentator on that tour, was not to be seen. Sunny is famous for his pranks but this must have been Sachin’s idea.”
“I really enjoyed the belly dancing and had two glasses of champagne, before I realised that everyone had started leaving. I was suddenly left with one belly dancer. Being the manager of the team, I had to observe the code of conduct and retire to my room,” concluded Wadekar.