23-04-2025
Sachin's birthday: UAE cricket officials remember the day they came close to playing against him
As Sachin Tendulkar turns 52 today, two veteran UAE cricket administrators recalled how they came close to playing against the iconic Indian cricketer.
This was September 1989 — a couple of months before Tendulkar broke into international cricket by famously making his Test debut as a 16-year-old prodigy in Pakistan.
But stories of his magical prowess with the bat were confined to India's maidans (grounds) when Mohamed Lokhandwala and Mazhar Khan landed in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) as part of the Emirates India Cricket Team for a few club-level matches in the cricket-obsessed country.
As the team from the UAE were preparing for their first match of the tour against Cricket Club of India, there was a knock on their dressing room door.
It was the late Raj Singh Dungarpur, a revered Indian cricket administrator.
'Mr Raj Singh came to our dressing room and said 'a young boy named Sachin Tendulkar will be playing against us today',' Mazhar Khan recalled.
'Mr Raj Singh said this boy was so talented that he would play for India soon. We were curious to see the boy, he arrived at the Brabourne Stadium early to practice.'
But rain played spoilsport as the match between the Emirates India Cricket Team and the Cricket Club of India was called off.
Unlike the rest of his teammates, Lokhandwala, a former club-level cricketer in India who moved to the UAE in the early 1980s, had heard of Tendulkar's exploits in school cricket.
'I am from Mumbai so I had heard of him. He was breaking all batting records in school cricket, but when Mr Raj Singh praised him so much that day, we realized this boy was a generational talent,' he said.
Lokhandwala still laments the missed opportunity of playing against the boy wonder.
'We were so excited to play against him, but unfortunately the rain spoiled the day,' he said.
Two months later, it wasn't Lokhandwala and Mazhar Khan in club-level matches, but the likes of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir who waited for the young Tendulkar on the biggest of all stages.
The teenager fought fire with fire, showing the talent and the temperament which eventually earned him 100 international centuries.
'I remember in one match, he was hit in the face by a Waqar Younis bouncer, we could see the blood, but he refused to give up and kept on playing. That proved how tough he was mentally even at a very young age,' he said.
While Lokhandwala went on to become a cricket administrator, Mazhar Khan took up the role of General Manager of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
'When he used to play international cricket in Sharjah (in the 1990s) what I noticed was that he was a shy person,' Khan said.
'He used to keep to himself. And that's how we saw him on the ground as well, he was totally focused on cricket.'
Khan may have missed out on the opportunity to play against a young Tendulkar, but he considers himself lucky to have witnessed the famous 'Desert Storm' in Sharjah when the Indian maestro scored one of the greatest hundreds in history.
'That innings (against Australia) in Sharjah (in 1998) was incredible. We were lucky to be on the ground that night,' Khan said.
While Lokhandwala is still waiting for an opportunity to meet Tendulkar, he did receive a special gift from cricket's greatest icon.
'A friend of mine helped me get a signed bat from Sachin. He even wrote my name on it,' Lokhandwala smiled.
