"He continued the gesture and told me to pull over" - Sachin Tendulkar recalls his funny encounter with a police guard back during his county days
Sachin Tendulkar was the first-ever player from outside Yorkshire to play cricket for the county back in 1992. The Little Master has some great memories of his time there and also some funny ones that he remembers to date.
Tendulkar has always been quite vocal about his love for cars and driving. He recalled one incident when he was driving all the way from Leeds to Newcastle. Sachin Tendulkar probably wasn't aware of the speed limit in the lane and was warned by the police guard a couple of times.
Instead of understanding the signs to slow down, Tendulkar thought the guard was telling him to switch on the headlights.
In a conversation with Gaurav Kapur on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, here's what Tendulkar had to say about the incident:
"I once drove back from Newcastle to Headingley after playing a game. A police van followed me and the police guard gestured me with something like this (blinking hand). I thought I hadn't put the headlights on so I switched them on.
"However, he continued the gesture and told me to pull over. This is where the logo of the car saved me as I told him I played for Yorkshire. Then he told that he was gesturing me to slow down my speed to 50 mph due to speed limit on the lane, while I was going at 60 mph."
When Sachin Tendulkar drove almost thousand kilometers in two days
Sachin Tendulkar's passion for the game was so high that he didn't mind even playing exhibition matches. To play one such game, Tendulkar drove all the way from Leeds to London and after the game he had to head to Newcastle.
However, Newcastle was farther than what the Little Master probably thought. On this, Sachin Tendulkar recalled:
"This was when I was playing country cricket for Yorkshire. I was called and asked whether I would like to play an exhibition match in London. I agreed and then from Headingley, Leeds, I drove around 320 km to London and played the match. It was a night game and then I had to go to Newcastle.
"But then I realised Newcastle is almost 480 km away from there. So me and my friend Jatin (Paranjpe) began driving. However, we later realized that we had taken the opposite direction."
This led to him driving back overnight and playing another game the next day with just 20 minutes of sleep. On this, he said:
"We reached Newcastle the next day about 8:30 am and the team bus was leaving the hotel just as we were entering. I requested them that I wanted to sleep for 20 mins so that I was ready for the match. So in two days, I played two ODI matches and drove 950 km. I was finished."
All these funny but precious memories are the ones that will stay with Sachin Tendulkar forever apart from his achievements on the field.