I was in Maharashtra U-19 probables when Sachin had already stamped his supremacy in international cricket. Well, I didn’t pursue the sport. Instead, I moved into academics, completed my MBA, and started working at MTV.
In MBA classrooms, the ‘New India’ was about Sachin Tendulkar and his heady accomplishments in the post- liberalization world. Even though I was in a busy corporate job, I would also do a bit of stand-up comedy and mimicry of Sachin, Tony Greig and Ian Chappell. In my book ‘How Sachin Destroyed My Life,’ I wrote about it. It was nine years back in 2014.
The imitation of Sachin got me a lot of recognition; since 2003, I have done thousands of shows. I always felt my journey was intertwined with that of Sachin. So when people saw me mimicking Sachin, I started getting gigs and did the 2003 World Cup with Sony Max. But the turning point was the 2004 Asia Cup, where I was invited by the Sri Lanka Cricket board.
I was supposed to do Sachin’s mimicry at an event where India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka teams would be present. Before that tournament, I had only met Sachin once; that was the briefest possible interaction for an MTV event. But when this Asia Cup function was supposed to be held, I was wary of whether he would take my act sportingly.
Sania Mirza on Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin’s friend and former India and Mumbai keeper Sameer Dighe came to my rescue. Sameer told me, ‘Vikram, don’t worry; I will send a message to Sachin. It will be fine if you just say “hi” to him.’
The show went well, and after that, Sachin came up and told me, ‘Hey, I liked what you did up there.’ It was like a surreal moment for me. Next thing I knew that I was having breakfast with him, Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) and Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) at the Taj Samudra Hotel. That is where I thought I had connected with him.
Generally, Sachin is an introverted man and a very private person. Those days, he was even quieter. But somehow, we connected and started chatting. In 2005, I started touring and chased Sachin and my friend Sunandan Lele. Thanks to Sunandan, my interactions with Sachin increased, and mimicry became my calling card. He enjoyed it so much that he would call his close friends and ask me to imitate him in front of them. He was very sporting. In fact, at his retirement farewell party, he told me to imitate him.
I will always be grateful to almighty that I got a chance to talk cricket with him during the last 10 years of his career when he played some of his best cricket across formats. He would call me in his hotel room, chat about his innings, explain his frame of mind, preparation with every minute detail.