“You must ensure that John does not apologize”, When Sachin Tendulkar saved John Wright from apologising after he slapped Virender Sehwag

The Indian cricket team’s victory against England in the 2002 NatWest Series final was a landmark achievement, since it was one of the closest triangular series ever. Every Indian cricket fan remembers Sourav Ganguly’s shirt wave from the Lord’s balcony after the final vividly. A terrible thing had occurred during the series, however.

Virender Sehwag, a former India batter, was a key figure in the series because of his responsibility to help India get off to a strong start. When Sehwag was dismissed during one of the ODIs, former head coach John Wright became so enraged by the manner of his dismissal that he slapped Sehwag in the locker room.

Sehwag told Ganguly, the Indian captain, and he shared Sehwag’s opposition. Ganguly made a big deal out of it, and now the squad won’t come out of the locker room until Wright publicly apologizes to Sehwag. But then Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar stepped in and calmly handled things.

Former Indian team manager and current senior cricket administrator Rajiv Shukla recounted how Tendulkar diffused the unpleasant situation to protect Wright’s reputation. He disclosed discussing this with Wright, who said that he took this action because Sehwag was making the same error over and over again.

Even further, Shukla remembered how Tendulkar had approached him, asking him to ensure that Wright did not apologize, lest he lose his respect in the eyes of the team. After speaking with Sehwag, Shukla was able to get insight into the predicament. Current Vice President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Shukla has high admiration for Tendulkar for being calm in a potentially volatile scenario.

“I found [John] Wright and asked him if he did it. John said that he wanted [Virender] Sehwag to score a century but Sehwag repeated his mistake of lifting the ball and got out, so I was angry. And he is like a disciple to me, so I just pushed him out of anger,” Shukla had said as quoted by The Hindu.

“Sachin [Tendulkar] came to me and said ‘You must ensure that John does not apologize, otherwise the coach will lose his respect’. I got back to Sehwag and explained that it was just like a father chides his son, John did it. He understood and let it go.”

In the same discussion, Shukla disclosed that Tendulkar had persuaded his teammates not to celebrate by waving their shirts after they had won the 2002 Natwest Trophy.