Glenn McGrath Recalls the Day When Sachin Tendulkar Sledged Him

If you speak about legendary Sachin Tendulkar, the first thing which comes to mind is simplicity and being one of the greatest servants of the game. You don’t associate Tendulkar with sledging oppositions. For the major part of his career, he has let his bat do the talking. However, he has sledged oppositions on a fewest of the occasions. Back in 2000, Tendulkar went after arguably the greatest bowler of the generation, Glenn McGrath.

During an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, McGrath reveals how Tendulkar had reminded him that it was his day.

Usually a very silent person, Tendulkar was seen hurling a cuss word at McGrath after stepping down the track and hitting him back over the head for a six. It was an exceptional display of batsmanship by the Little Master.

It was the Quarter Final of the ICC Knockout Trophy. The tournament was held in Kenya back in 2000. India batted first, and it was Tendulkar who got them off to a flying start. He was severe on McGrath smashing him three sixes.

So much so, the six over the square leg region went outside the ground. He kept unsettling McGrath, and he was left searching for answers. He was perplexed to see Tendulkar stepping down to him on a regular basis.

Glenn McGrath recalls the moment when he was surprised to see Sachin Tendulkar sledge him 

“Champions Trophy 2000, I bowled a short ball to Sachin, he pulled me. It went straight up in the air, I thought the keeper was going to catch it, and there was a bit of a breeze, and it drifted back, and I thought the third man was going to run in and catch it and it kept going and it went for six. And then Sachin just smashed me everywhere, and he was the one having a bit of a chat. He was getting stuck into me, sledging me and it was a little bit unusual. That hadn’t happened before. It was Sachin’s day, he was confident, and he was letting me know,” McGrath maintained.

Tendulkar only scored 39, but the impact of the innings was such that it allowed India to play a bit slow in the middle overs.

Yuvraj Singh had made his debut in the tournament. The southpaw smashed a brilliant 88 which helped India post a competitive score of 264 runs. But the Indian bowlers were pretty impressive and restricted Australia to 245 to hand India a 19 runs victory.

Meanwhile, Glenn McGrath was also asked to recall some of the memorable sledges he said that he doesn’t remember too many fights after reveling about Sachin Tendulkar.

“There is not too many that really come to mind, you can have a bit of fun out there. It is not about being personal. It is about getting in the batsmen’s mind and have a bit of fun and have a laugh about it afterwards,” McGrath recalled.