Mumbai: He may be holding every possible batting record in the game but India’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar says that he still feels very nervous when he walks out to bat.

“I believe feeling nervous enables one to give his best. You can get nervous only when you care about something and I care about cricket,” Tendulkar said while speaking at a felicitation function for batting legends Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath on Thursday.

It was a nostalgic moment for one and all as four legends of the country — Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan — came together and mesmerised the audience with personal anecdotes.

Tendulkar spoke about how he has always idolised Gavaskar and that the batting legend personally came to greet him after he broke his record of 34 centuries.  Tendulkar said that it was a very touching moment for him to see Gavaskar waiting for him.

“There is not a bigger thing than getting recognised from the person you adore. He advised me not to stop and carry on. I am trying to follow his advice,” Tendulkar, the highest run-getter in both Test and one-day formats, said.

Tendulkar also spoke about how Gavaskar wrote a letter to him in his school days in 1987 after he had failed to win the best junior cricketer of the year award. “I was very disappointed not to win the award. That’s when I got a letter from him. That letter was more valuable to me than the award itself.”

“During the 1987 World Cup when I was a ball boy at the Wankhede stadium, I remember him (Gavaskar) calling me to the dressing room and introducing me to the entire team. I was too stunned and hardly spoke during the entire day,” he added.

Asked what would he want to be if he was reborn, Gavaskar, in his usual humorous style, said that he would like to be a fast bowler and give it back to all those who had hurled bouncers at him.

Vishwanath also kept the audience enthralled with his witty and humorous stories about his playing days and how he had struck a friendship with Gavaskar which is still going strong. “We have had some wonderful partnership on the cricket field but our partnership in life has been going strong and I hope it will continue to remain so,” Viswanath said.

The felicitation was organised by Trikitadah, a musical group.

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