“When did you first hear of Sir Donald Bradman?” I ask.
“It must be at home,” says Sachin Tendulkar. “I must have been about five years old.”
I interview the great Indian cricketer for the documentary, Bradman and Tendulkar, for ABC.
Tendulkar was born in 1973 (yes, he will be 50 in three months).
“And because my two brothers followed cricket, and [my] sister of course, I had no choice but to listen to their conversation. The parents followed suit. Not much,” he said.
The Tendulkars lived in the colony (community) Sahitya Sahawas in Bandra East, Bombay (now Mumbai), which is home to writers and poets.
“But it was actually my two brothers, Nitin and Ajit,” he explains.
“They both used to discuss various hitters. And in those discussions obviously Sir Don’s name came up.”
They talked about Bradman’s infamous 99.94 batting average because there wasn’t much else to do in those days.
“So I remember my neighbor, Mr. Gowariker,” Tendulkar said.
Sachin Tendulkar was a playful child with good friends including a boy called Avinash Gowariker, whose father was a cricketer.
Long before Sachin Tendulkar became a star, Sir Donald Bradman’s handwritten letter from a neighbor opened his eyes to great cricket.(PA: Paul Miller
“So I had been to his house and that’s when his dad was talking about Sir Don,” Tendulkar says. “And he said, ‘I have something really, really valuable, a handwritten letter from Sir Don. “”
It was in 1979 or 1980. Sachin was seven or eight years old.
“I’ll show you that letter too.”
Tendulkar pulls the letter out of its envelope.
“I don’t think anyone has seen this letter. You can see it,” he said, pointing to the sender’s address. “2 Holden Street [Kensington Park, Adelaide]. That’s where I met him in 1998.”
Sir Donald Bradman has received large amounts of fan mail at his home in the leafy Adelaide suburb of Kensington Park.(AAP: Rob Hutchison
Bradman’s writing is friendly but brief. He tells Mr Gowariker he regrets never playing a Test in India (Sir Donald played a series against India in Australia but retired the following year).
The letter also mentions Bradman’s son John, a law student, as Mr Gowariker was a lawyer.
“It’s a precious thing.”
Tendulkar believes the letter reveals Bradman’s character.
“That says a lot about the person he was,” he says. “You know, playing cricket is important. Yes. And then my father also always told me that [by] play cricket, people would like you.
“But, you know, what happens beyond the cricketing years is also just as important, if not more important, and that’s where the person you are comes in.
“It’s a reflection of that, you know, that Sir Don cared about his supporters, his fans around the world, and acknowledged their support, their well wishes.
“I mean, now, 52 years later, we’re showing that letter, we’re sharing it with everyone. And that says a lot about the kind of person he was.”
“Very few people would understand Bradman’s fame,” I said. “[But] you know how it feels.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “It’s a package deal. And a number of people have asked me, ‘What about your privacy? Do you have any privacy?’ I feel, you know, it’s a blessing.
“People love you. They wish you well. I wouldn’t compromise on anything. I mean, I think all I’ve gotten so far in my life is a blessing from above.
“I think without all that, life wouldn’t have been the same. It gave me the strength to go out and give my best for the country. And then that’s all I wanted do when I was a kid.
“So there are a few people in this world who like to do something. And people really like to watch what they’re doing. So for me, that combination worked wonders.”
Sachin Tendulkar spent his formative years in the Sahitya Sahawas colony at Bandra East in Bombay, now Mumbai.(Getty Images: Hindustan Times/Mahendra Parikh
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Someone else who understands stardom, albeit a different type of superstar, is Tendulkar’s childhood friend Avinash Gowariker, now a renowned Bollywood photographer.
My documentary team and I visit him in the former settlement of Bandra East.
“So that’s where it all started for Sachin,” I said.
“Yes, absolutely this building,” he said. “And you know, Sachin always says he’s been very grounded.
“And it’s the place that has contributed so much to his journey. The 28 years he’s been here are what made him who he is today – friends, families and everyone together.”
Avinash Gowariker expands on the story of Sir Donald Bradman’s letter to his father.
“[It arrived] in 1970, just before I was born,” he says. “My father was a big cricket fan; he lived in England in the 1960s.
“And he watched the game with a lot of love and passion. And he loved it.
“He had reached out to Sir Don with a simple letter, which I would call classic fan mail. My dad was a lawyer and he spoke wonderful English. And he was a very emotional man.
“So I guess what he wrote, I don’t know what he wrote – which I haven’t – but my dad must have written something moving to Sir Don that he thought, you know, answering my father.”
“It’s just a very, very precious possession of my father. And I kept it [and] the same emotion with me.”
Avinash Gowariker never wanted to sell the letter.
“Someone somewhere told me there was a museum being built on Sir Don, and they were prepared to buy the letter from my dad, but my dad wouldn’t part with it. It’s too precious to me.”
The Bradman Museum was opened in 1989.
Like Tendulkar, Avinash Gowariker sees more than the words on the pages.
“What a warm, simple, gentle man he must have been,” he says.
“Right at the top – that’s Sir Don Bradman – writing someone, just a fan in India, writing such a warm letter – that’s what these guys do. That’s why they become legends.”
Bradman and Tendulkar are available to stream via ABC iview.
