Sachin Tendulkar reunites with childhood friend Vinod Kambli: According to a news in The Times of India, the players of the 1983 World Cup winning team are ready to bear the medical expenses of former Test cricketer Vinod Kambli (Vinod Kambli’s Health Update), if Vinod Kambli is ready to go to the rehab centre. This story definitely reached this conclusion because of a viral video on social media, but the beginning of this story was not very different.
The story is of Sachin and Vinod’s childhood (Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli).
The story is about Sachin and Vinod’s childhood. Sachin and Kambli would have been seven-eight years old when the film ‘Dostana’ starring superstars like Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha was released in 1980. A song from this film became very famous… ‘Mere Dost Kissa Ye Kya Ho Gaya’… The meeting of Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar on a stage in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park refreshed the memories of this song. The heights of fame that Sachin has reached, Vinod Kambli also had an equally successful beginning. Vinod Kambli accelerated just like Sachin, but his car could not maintain that speed. Whereas, hard work and perhaps strict discipline proved Sachin to be a long-distance horse, while Kambli remained a hero whose story could have been different.
This is from 1988. In the Sasanian Cricket Club at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, two disciples of Guru Ramakant Achrekar were scoring runs. Together they made a world record of 664 runs for Shardashram Vidyamandir. The coach kept trying to call him by signaling. But both the friends kept thrashing St. Xavier’s bowlers in the Harris Shield tournament. In this match, Sachin scored 324 runs while Vinod Kambli scored unbeaten 349 runs.
Vinod Kambli’s career, which was about one and a quarter years older than Sachin, started taking off right from the beginning.
In the semi-finals of the 1994 Pepsi Australia Asia Cup, Vinod Kambli took out Australian legend Shane Warne from the crease and kept hitting sixes and fours and scored 22 runs in one over. When Kambli showed the courage to break the fear of Shane Warne, he started touching the heights of fame overnight. At that time, the greats of the cricket world also started talking about Vinod Kambli along with Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. Former captain Sunil Gavaskar also wanted to see these three batsmen in the same row.
However, Vinod Kambli’s international career lasted only 9 years and he could play only 17 Tests and 104 ODIs. But you may be surprised to know that Vinod Kambli’s average in Test and First Class was much higher than Sachin. Kambli’s average in Test matches was 54.20 while Sachin’s was 53.78. Similarly, in first class, Vinod Kambli’s average was 59.57 and Sachin’s average was 57.84.
Well, the comparison between these two giants should probably end here. There are countless stories of Sachin’s greatness. He has 100 international centuries and countless runs to his name, whereas Vinod Kambli scored six international centuries in his career. A shooting star, he shines like a meteor and disappears like light.
Vinod Kambli himself must have been responsible for all this to some extent. Luck also did not favor him. When Sachin played his last Test match in 2013 (200 Tests and 463 ODIs), in the same year Vinod Kambli (17 Tests, 104 ODIs) also suffered a heart attack. Alcohol and indiscipline made him dependent on every penny. He needed to go to the rehab center. If this is not a play of nature then what else can we call it, once again this story has reached the same place.
Sick Vinod Kambli holding his friend’s hand emotionally became a heart-touching moment for cricket fans. The wonderful story of Mumbai’s Azad Maidan became painful and poignant after reaching Shivaji Park after almost 36 years.
