Vengsarkar recalled how his Mumbai teammate Vasu Paranjpe insisted on watching Tendulkar bat. “It was in 1988 when I was the captain of Mumbai and India. One day Vasu picked me up from Parsee Gymkhana and we went to CCI as Sachin was playing a match there. Unfortunately, he was fielding so we were not able to watch him bat. So, I called him to bat in the nets with the Indian team. I told all our top bowlers to bowl at him, but they were not keen to bowl at a 14-year-old. They eventually did and after watching him, I said he should be straightaway picked for Mumbai,” said Vengsarkar.

Amol Muzumdar, Tendulkar’s childhood friend and Mumbai stalwart, shared an anecdote describing the razor-sharp memory of the Little Master. “In 1999, we were having dinner when my father recalled a match in 1987 at Cross Maidan in which Sachin participated. To everyone’s astonishment, Sachin remembered the plot on which the match was played, the exact number of runs he scored and the way he got out. Our jaws dropped. After playing so much of international cricket, he remembered all the details of the match which was played 12 years ago. That’s his specialty — he never forgets,” said Muzumdar.u00a0