'Didn't have the guts': Sachin Tendulkar recalls getting shoes from ex-India teammate for scoring ton

Sachin Tendulkar got gifted high-quality cricket gear from Pravin Amre.

One of Sachin Tendulkar's greatest qualities is that he never fails to give credit to people who helped him succeed, particularly when he was a young, middle-class youngster attempting to establish himself in the sport.

While launching his sportswear and athleisure brand in Mumbai on Friday, the retired maestro recalled how, as a teenager, he received a pair of shoes as a gift from his teammate from Mumbai and India—and, more importantly, a close friend—Pravin Amre, who was also his senior by four years at Shardashram Vidyamandir school.

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Having promised the then-talented batsman that he would give Tendulkar a pair of shoes after he struck a century, Amre kept his promise after returning from the India Under-19 tour of Australia.

As it happened, Tendulkar was wearing a pair of white canvas shoes with flat green soles when he first arrived at his renowned childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar's nets. This was standard equipment for physical education sessions in schools at the time. A few days later, Achrekar urged Ajit, Tendulkar's brother, to get the youngster a pair of spiked cricket shoes.

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Telling how Amre gave him his first set of elegant, pricey cricket shoes by promising him a hundred runs in interschool competition, Tendulkar said, "Pravin, who is also here, had gone to Australia and played for the India Under-19 team. After he returned from there, Achrekar sir told us: 'Watch his batting.' So we would watch him very closely, and while observing his batting, we would notice what kit he was using, which bat, which shoes. We saw some fancy cricket shoes in his kit bag, and we were naturally fascinated by those shoes. Pravin told me: 'Score a hundred and take them!'

"So, when I scored a hundred, I didn't have the guts to tell him that he had promised me a pair if I scored a hundred. But Pravin himself came to me, and the first good-quality pair of shoes of my life was given to me! I cannot forget that."

Amre, who was among the audience that included former India stumper Kiran More and head selector and former bowler Ajit Agarkar, responding to Tendulkar's expression of thanks for his kind deed despite the passage of so many years was quoted as saying in a TOI report: "I just didn't expect Sachin to say that! I was really overwhelmed that he still remembered this gesture even after so many years. I had totally forgotten about it! This incident must've happened in 1987 or 1988. This is what makes Tendulkar truly a legend of sport. It marks his greatness. I remember they were imported shoes-you didn't get such shoes in India back then. They were spike shoes for batting. I feel so proud that I gifted them to the right person, who went on to become perhaps the greatest cricketer ever!"

"After the programme, I told him it was just a small thing I did for him. But he replied by saying that at that point in his life, it was a big thing for him!" Amre, a former India cricketer who struck a fine century against South Africa in 1992 at Durban during his Test debut, added.