The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : I like go-karting a lot: Sachin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 02, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

I like go-karting a lot: Sachin

CHENNAI, JULY 1. Sachin Tendulkar's passion for fast cars is well-known; but he wants to make it known that there is a clear line of demarcation between Sachin, the racy batsman, and Sachin, the lover of fast cars.

"I don't lose any sleep if I've had a bad day as far as my driving is concerned; but it's a very different story in the first case," he grinned.

Sachin Tendulkar unveiled the first Maruti Baleno rally car here on Thursday, and spoke of the other great passion in his life.

"Cricket has always been my first love; everything revolves around it. But I also love Formula One. I also like go-karting a lot," he said at a press conference. "My friends and I visit tracks at weird hours, and have a lot of fun." Tendulkar spoke nostalgically about how his passion for cars developed over the years: "When I was a kid growing up in Bandra (a Mumbai suburb), there was a huge drive-in theatre and I kept looking at the cars passing by and that's how I started liking them."

Until now, MRF, the tyre-giant, offered the main thrust behind the initiative here; Maruti's move to enter into a partnership with MRF marks the first instance of a car manufacturer entering the car-rally scene in India in a big way.

"At the Bangalore camp held earlier, we had a lot of fun playing kho-kho," said Tendulkar. "It's important to know Indian sports. It is a very demanding sport physically, and that helps our fitness."

Meanwhile, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and four other Indian players — Md. Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan — reached the city two days ahead of the Chennai training camp, for a commercial shoot. "We will strive to bring back the Asia Cup. The focus of the Chennai camp will be on fitness," said Ganguly.

India has won the Asia Cup four times. Pakistan is the defending champion.

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