Islamabad
Former Pakistan’s off-spin great Saqlain Mushtaq has rolled over some past memories and narrated how two erstwhile greats of the game responded when he sledged them.
“In cricket you do sledging to put psychological pressure on your opponent. (I’ve also been doing that) but I will never forget two sledging – the one against the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and the other against Australia’s Steve Waugh. Both were great players and mentally very tough,” he said on his YouTube Channel.
Recalling he said that first of these two episodes took place during Sahara Cup tournament in Canada in 1997 when he thought to sledge Sachin.
“It was after two years since my debut and during that period I came out of the shell on the basis of some great performances. As a bowler I’d started feeling enough confidence in my skills and abilities. I’d enough self-belief now. Sachin was batting and I started sledging him,” the veteran off-spinner recollected.
“I’d been doing that repeatedly but Sachin did not say anything to me. Instead he kept on concentrating on his batting. But after sometime he came up to me and said why are you doing this? ‘I consider you a good human being and it is also evident from your face that you are not of that stuff (who tease others). You are also a good player. I never misbehaved with you, then why are you doing that’?
“I got so embarrassed that I did not know what to say to him. Although my sledging was not so insulting.
It was within limits, but still during the entire next over and afterwards when I was fielding at the boundary his (Sachin’s) words kept on echoing in my mind. Then I decided that I’ll never sledge him again.”
Saqlain said that he apologised to Sachin and after that event he never sledged. “He is a great man and a very humble player. I’ve never seen such a humble player in my entire career.”
The 43-year-old said that his other sledging was against Steve Waugh. He recalled a match at Adelaide when he took Steve Waugh’s wicket. “His facial expressions showed that he was very angry with his own self as well as with me. Our team also won that match.
“During next two to three times when he faced me I again took his wicket. It was looking as if I had got a psychological edge over him. But he was such a player that you could not judge from his face whether he was under pressure or not.”
Recalling another event during a test match at Hobart, he said, Steve Waugh again fell cheaply to his bowling and looked very angry. “When during our innings (in that Test) I went for batting, he called me Mr. Bean. Other fielders standing nearby started laughing at me. He repeatedly called me Mr. Bean at that time.—APP
