The Australian cricket team has always been high on energy on the field -- both, with their skills and demeanour. The side, especially in the late nineties and early 2000s, was particularly aggressive on the field, with bowlers and fielders resorting to brutal sledging to pressurize the batsmen.
However, there was one player immune to all the verbal attempts from Aussie cricketers during those days -- India's Sachin Tendulkar. And the Aussies knew it, too, as Brett Lee has now revealed that the team had decided not to sledge Tendulkar, as it only used to boost him further.
While speaking on Star Sports' show 'Cricket Connected', Lee revealed that Glenn McGrath had told the bowlers not to engage with Tendulkar verbally.
“There was always a bowling captain, when I was growing up, there was Glenn (McGrath) and he would always say to the young guys coming through, be it Mitch Johnson or any of the young guys, Do not talk to Sachin, if you do, you will in be pain whole day. So that was it, that was what we discussed in our bowling meeting, do not talk to Sachin," Lee said.
Tendulkar enjoyed fierce rivalry with both, Lee and McGrath during the prime of their careers. His record against Australia is particularly impressive, as he has an average of 55 against the side in 39 Test matches, including 11 centuries and a double-ton.
In ODIs, the 'Master Blaster' has scored 3,077 runs against Australia in 71 matches, scoring 9 tons.
Earlier, former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq had also narrated a similar story on Sachin Tendulkar.
“I was new when I sledged him for the first time. If I recall correctly, it was the 1997 edition. Sachin quietly came up to me and said ‘I never misbehaved with you, why are you misbehaving with me’? I got so embarrassed that I did not know what to say to him,” Saqlain told PTI.
