Arjun Tendulkar emulated his legendary father Sachin by slamming a century on his Ranji Trophy debut when he scored a hundred for Goa against Rajasthan in a Group C encounter on Wednesday.
Coming into bat at the fall of the fifth wicket, the 23-year-old Arjun completed his century on the second day of the match against Rajasthan being played at the Goa Cricket Association Academy ground here.
He emulated his illustrious father, Sachin scored 100 not out on his Ranji Trophy debut for Bombay, now renamed Mumbai, against Gujarat at Wankhede on December 11, 1988. He became the youngest Indian to score a century on debut in first-class cricket aged 15 years and 232 days.
Now, Sachin has spoken about Arjun's achievement and urged the media to allow his son to fall in love with cricket.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Sachin was asked by anchor Gaurav Kapur about Arjun's unique feat, to which the cricket icon said: "As a father, I remember my father telling someone…this was just when I started playing for India. And at an event my father introduced him as ‘Sachin’s father’ and his friend asked him how do you feel, he said ‘it was the proudest moment of my life. Because this is what fathers want their children to be. To be recognised by what your child has done.' "
Sachin continued: "Arjun has not led a normal childhood. Being a son of a cricketer who’s been around for quite some time is not easy and that’s the only reason when I retired and I was felicitated by the media in Mumbai, my message to them was allow Arjun to fall in love with cricket. Give him that opportunity. You can follow up with your statements after he has performed. Don’t try and put pressure on him. Because I never had that pressure from my parents. They gave me the freedom to go out and express myself. There was no pressure of expectations. There was only encouragement and support and how could we go out and better ourselves and that is what I wanted him to do."
Arjun had earlier this year switched affiliation to Goa after representing Mumbai in age-group cricket.
