Nagpur: Cricket icon and Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar Saturday said specially-abled and visually impaired athletes were the greatest examples of those making the impossible possible.
Tendulkar was addressing a gathering at the ‘Khasdar Krida Mahotsav’ initiative of Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur.
Tendulkar,citing an example of the 1990s when he participated in a cricket match for the visually impaired, said he tried playing with his eyes closed.
“A lot of times, we say it is impossible but the word impossible also says that ‘I’m possible’. Specially-abled and visually impaired athletes are the greatest examples of this,” he said.
“And this we realise when we spend time with these athletes. How much skill they have and how nicely their senses work and how much we can learn from them,” he added.
Tendulkar said one should appreciate and value what he or she had and progress in that.
Praising Gadkari for the initiative, Tendulkar said “success is never guaranteed” and added that one needed mental preparation for it, though even then the result is sometimes not what one wanted.
“But that should not become a reason for taking short cuts. I want to tell athletes to focus on preparation because you will face ups and downs in life and things will not go the way you wanted,” he said.
“Sometimes the referee’s decision is in your favour and sometimes it goes against you. But when the decision goes against you, you should accept it sportingly. And prepare your heart on how you you will compete in the fairest possible way in future,” he said.
