There is no denying to the fact that the Indian cricketers enjoy a massive fan base, as the game of cricket is treated as a religion in India. They go to any part of the country to support the team and always had an incredible time at the venues. In particular, Sachin Tendulkar had an incredible fan base during his playing times. The love is such that the fans used to give death warnings to the bowlers, who used to dismiss him.
Revealing one of the stories, the fast bowler of England Tim Bresnan revealed how the fans of Sachin Tendulkar threatened him and the umpire Tucker for denying Tendulkar his hundredth century during the 2011 four-Test series between India and England.
Tim Bresnan reveals when fans of Sachin Tendulkar gave death threats
It was the time when Tendulkar was stuck on 99 international centuries for a while but seemed to be heading towards his record 100th ton during the fourth Test at the Oval. But when he was on 91, a delivery from Bresnan clipped Tendulkar on the pads. A huge appeal followed and Tucker raised his fingers, even though the ball seemed to be missing the leg stump.
Back then, India didn’t support the Decision Review System, thus, Sachin Tendulkar has to walk back without reaching his century. Not just after the matches, Tim Bresnan and the umpire received backlash for months after the incident.
“He was on 99 international hundreds and there were no referrals in that series because the BCCI didn’t like it,” said Bresnan while speaking on the Yorkshire Cricket: Covers Off podcast.
“It was at The Oval in the last Test of the series. This ball, it was probably missing leg anyway, and umpire (Tucker), Aussie lad, shot him out. He was on 80-odd as well (91), definitely going to get it (his century). We win the series and go to number one in the world,” he added.
I have had a security guard – Rod Tucker
The threats are such that the umpire has to arrange a personal security officer to save him from the people. He received letters to his home address mentioning his poor decision to give Sachin Tendulkar out when he was reaching his 100th century.
“We both got death threats, me and this umpire, we got death threats for ages after,” Bresnan went on. “I got them on Twitter and he (Tucker) had people writing to him to his home address and stuff, getting proper death threats going, ‘How dare you give him out?
It was missing leg.’ I caught up with him a few months later and he was like, ‘Mate, I’ve had to get a security guard and stuff.’ He had police protection around his gaff in Australia.”
