Playing only their third ODI World Cup and their best by a distance, Afghanistan have been thankful to Indians for the hospitality they have received in the last month. Their captain Hashmatullah Shahidi on Monday thanked the Indian crowd for supporting them in all their games so far, for the respect they showed in recognising them off the field, and there was the anecdote of a taxi driver not taking any money after a ride because he was taking the Afghanistan captain around.
That hospitality touched the sky on Monday when the Afghanistan players were paid a visit by local boy and World Cup winner Sachin Tendulkar during their training session in the evening.
Unlike many celebrities in Mumbai, Tendulkar arrived right on time when the Afghanistan nets session was just about to begin, he gave a memento to Mohammad Nabi and appeared to give a pep talk in a huddle surrounded by the entire squad, support staff and even some groundstaff.
Sachin Tendulkar pays the Afghanistan camp a visit #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/5a0dWfStSi
— ICC Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) November 6, 2023
The huddle dispersed and out came the cameras. There were a bunch of requests for selfies, group photos, posed candids and what not and Tendulkar agreed for all of them. When the focus of the training session was getting lost in the camera flashes, Tendulkar's former team-mate Ajay Jadeja, now a mentor with Afghanistan, dragged him away to the training pitch where they were also joined by the head coach Jonathan Trott. The trick worked because the crowd that had gathered started to scatter, the squad members warmed up with a jog around the ground, and soon the real nets session was underway.
While still talking to Jadeja and Trott, Tendulkar sneaked closer to the nets as the batters padded up and bowlers started to stretch. Soon he was seen engrossed in one-on-one conversations with different players with hand gestures about batting stance, follow-through, field settings and a lot more. It's not impossible Tendulkar also divulged secrets to beating Australia, the team he loved scoring against, and the team Afghanistan face on his home ground on Tuesday to fight for a semi-final berth.