As captain, Sachin Tendulkar couldn’t deal with criticism and after South Africa beat India in the first Test at the Wankhede in early 2000, tendered his resignation. Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Raj Singh Dungarpur and former India skipper Ravi Shastri couldn’t convince him to reconsider. The BCCI could avoid the embarrassment of an Indian skipper resigning in the middle of a series only after Tendulkar’s wife Anjali seemingly convinced her husband to stay on till the end of the two-match series.

This incident is highlighted by former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele in his book I Was There — Memoirs of a Cricket Administrator. Lele has also revealed how Kapil Dev, the then India coach, overruled Tendulkar’s decision to impose the follow-on against New Zealand in Ahmedabad in 1999-2000. This was a period when the spectre of match-fixing loomed large and Kapil’s orders to Tendulkar were rather “ridiculous”, Lele writes.

India had posted 583 in the first innings and New Zealand could only reply with 308. “Sachin Tendulkar went to the opposition captain (Stephen) Fleming, and told him that they had to bat again. From there, he walked to the dressing room and instructed Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad to select the new ball. They nodded, and as they spoke, Kapil shouted to Sachin, ‘Captain no follow-on! Our bowlers are tired. We will bat’.”

Lele recalled how then chairman of the selection committee Chandu Borde was taken by surprise. Sachin’s response was rather tame, perhaps keeping in mind the stature of Kapil. “Haan, theek hai, paaji. Lekin maine to unko bol diya hai ki hum follow-on de rehe hai (Okay, but I have already told them that we are enforcing a follow-on),” Sachin reportedly told Kapil. The latter, however, refused to change his decision.