Hyderabad: Legendary Indian batsman and 2011 World Cup-winning hero Sachin Tendulkar was born on April 24. This day is thus celebrated by many cricket fans across the world.
But this year, there will be no celebration in the Tendulkar household as the Master Blaster is clear that now is the time to fight the coronavirus outbreak and help those in need.
Speaking to a leading news agency on the eve of his 47th birthday, Tendulkar spoke about his message to the fans in these tough times, and most importantly what he feels about the fate of the Indian Premier League as well as the World T20 to be held later in the year in Australia.
For someone who is considered a legend due to his achievements on the cricketing field, Tendulkar wants every person to stay indoors and follow the guidelines of the government as they fight the pandemic.
"My message to my loved ones is that for so many years they have wished well for me and my way of wishing well for them would be to give them a message that they should stay at home and be safe. Whenever I went out to bat, they wanted me to score runs and not get out. So here, I want them to stay safe and secure and stay healthy and not get out. Like they wanted me to stay in the crease, I want them to stay in the crease," he smiled.
Coming to the gentleman's game, this is an unforeseen situation wherein not just the IPL has been postponed, but also the future of the World T20 in Australia later in the year looks under cloud. While various solutions have been spoken about by pundits with former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar even calling for a swap with India hosting this year's WT20 and Australia hosting the next edition, Tendulkar says for him cricket should be the winner.
"I don't know about the number of days available or when it was likely to happen (the exact dates). As long as there is cricket, I am happy. I am sure ICC would look into it and so will BCCI and the Australian cricket board and see which is the best way forward and then decide for world cricket, Indian cricket as well as Australian cricket. I feel they just need to identify the windows and if it fits into those windows, then why not?" he said.
