Sachin Tendulkar recalls an incident when a waiter's suggestion helped him rectify his batting flaws

Former Indian captain and batting great Sachin Tendulkar recalled an incident when an advice from a waiter in a hotel helped him rectify his batting flaws. Tendulkar was in Chennai during that time when a waiter in a restaurant came up and suggested him to change his elbow guard which was restricting his bat swing.

“If you have an open mind you can develop so many things. In Chennai, it was a waiter who came up to me and said if you don’t mind and don’t get offended I want to tell you something. I said go ahead. He said my elbow guard restricts my bat swing. And he was 100 percent right,” Sachin was quoted as saying by IndiaToday.

“I knew I was feeling uncomfortable but I never thought of doing it myself. A few years down the line I got hit a couple of times on my elbow guard and it hurt. That’s when I realised padding on elbow guard is inadequate. I instantly redesigned my elbow guard. I needed to re-open it and work on it,” Tendulkar added.

Though Sachin never used the elbow guard during the early phase of his career, but he started wearing later on especially on Australian and English soil where the ball used to seam and bounce much more than the Indian conditions. Sachin could have just brushed aside the waiter’s suggestions but he took that seriously and remodelled his arm guard. Tendulkar had a troublesome elbow during the majority of his career and underwent many surgeries which kept him out of the side many times.

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While speaking about the particular incident Tendulkar said that in a country like India everyone from a Panwala to a CEO has their opinions on cricket and how to play it but it was important that despite being a legendary cricketer he remained open to the piece of advice by a common man.