Tim de Leede recalls dismissing Sachin Tendulkar as his maiden international wicket

Former Netherlands cricketer Tim de Leede recalled a game against India when he picked the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar. Interestingly, it was his first-ever wicket in international cricket. Tim finished with excellent figures of 4/35, which included the wickets of Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. The 55-year-old stated that he feels regretted for not pulling off a win over India.

“I think about it every now and then. I regret that we didn’t get the runs. It was our golden opportunity to beat India. We missed out. I have kept that ball. We played the 1996 World Cup, and then we missed out in 1999 but we did manage to qualify for the South Africa World Cup in 2003. I thought that would be my last World Cup," Tim told the Indian Express.

“I had never taken a wicket and hadn’t scored a fifty. I was 35 then, I trained as hard as I have ever done. I thought no matter if I get a wicket or score a fifty, I must give 100 per cent to the team. Luckily I got a wicket in the first match, and it was Tendulkar’s,” he added.

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After the match, the umpire Peter Willey asked him, ‘You want the match ball because you are not going to take Sachin’s wicket again.’ To which he replied, “why not”. Willey then told him to get signed by Tendulkar but he could not meet the Indian cricketer after that. 

Tim further recalled that after a year he got a chance to meet Tendulkar again and received the autograph on his match ball. The Indian team was playing a tri-series and Tendulkar was injured. The Indian cricketer was consulting a physio for a tennis elbow injury and he happened to be Tim’s friend.  

“A friend of mine, who is a physio from The Hague, called me up and said, ‘you will never guess who I am treating now.’ I asked who? he replied, ‘it is Sachin Tendulkar.’ My friend said ‘he will be here every single day’. Sachin was walking in the streets of The Hague, nobody recognised him. He loved it. We had a 45-minute chat. He remembered that game and told me an interesting story," he said.

“India came to the World Cup after losing against New Zealand (5-2). Then we bowled them for 200 hundred, and then they lost the next match (Australia) as well. He said ‘my wife said, Sachin, you have to do something because people are going crazy’. Sachin had to come on national TV to tell people everything will be alright. He scored 98 against Pakistan, he must be under so much pressure but he did it. Which is so admirable,” he added.