Sachin fractured his rib but didn’t make a noise: Sourav Ganguly explains why Tendulkar was special

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is regarded as one of the finest to have led the country. He played with some of the greats of the game and managed to get the best out of the youngsters in the team to help India attain great success both at home and overseas.

While he nurtured some of the future superstars of Indian cricket during his captaincy stint, he also managed the seniors well. Ganguly was recently asked about his experience of opening with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, two of India’s best openers of all time.

While he called Tendulkar sane, Ganguly said Sehwag was insane as a batter. The former India captain picked Tendulkar over Sehwag as the batter he enjoyed opening with the most and admitted batting with the Master Blaster helped him lift his own game.

“Sachin was the most sane one and Sehwag was insane. So it is Sachin. He actually also made me a better player. Sachin actually got me lift my game,” said Ganguly speaking at  CREDAI’s annual conference.

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The former India captain then went on to recall an interesting anecdote involving Tendulkar to explain why he was a special cricketer. Ganguly revealed Tendulkar was once hit on his ribs and suffered a double fracture while batting but didn’t make a fuss about it and continued scoring runs despite being in immense pain.

“Sachin was special and I have seen him up close. I have seen him hit in the rib cage. He did not make a noise, and got runs. The next morning, he had a double fracture in his ribs. I heard a sound and I went and asked him if he was okay. He said he was fine. The next morning, he had fractures. He was special,” Ganguly recalled.

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One of the greatest batters of all time, Tendulkar still holds the record for most runs and most centuries in international cricket. Ganguly said playing with Tendulkar helped him lift his game.

“Older he became, the better he became. I found Murali the hardest when he was older,” said the former India skipper, who recently stepped down as the president of the BCCI.