Mumbai: Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar said that his coach Ramakant Achrekar made him realise the importance of fitness in the initial stages of his career.
“He told me fitness is a key factor but he made things enjoyable for me. I never felt why I was doing this,” said Tendulkar at an event here on Thursday.
Tendulkar narrated how Achrekar used to stop him from overtraining.
“At one point, he used to come and say ‘that’s it, it’s dark, you will get hurt’ and that’s how the session used to come to an end,” he said.
Tendulkar never felt like running or put in an extra effort after the sessions with coach Achrekar.
The master cricketer urged individuals to push themselves mentally.
"Once you learn to push the boundaries, then it also makes you mentally strong. There have been times where I felt tired while playing international games. But it was the mental strength and training at a young age which sort of I could use and put that into practice," he added.
"The foundation was becoming more and more solid for me and then after that there were number of marathon innings I played, at school level as well. When both Vinod (Kambli) and I created the world record, I scored 326 not out, bowled little bit and hopped across to play another match because there were two matches going on simultaneously in our school itself. So I went there and scored 178 not out again in that match, followed that with another triple hundred," concluded Tendulkar.
