"I Was Pulling At My Nails": Sara Tendulkar's Viral Confession As Team Owner
Growing up, Sara Tendulkar saw from close quarters what it meant to excel in sport. The pressure of expectations and the need to perform could get to even the best players
Growing up, Sara Tendulkar saw from close quarters what it meant to excel in sport. The pressure of expectations and the need to perform could get to even the best players. Being the daughter of Sachin Tendulkar, Sara grew up around sport her whole life, but nothing quite prepared her for this kind of nervousness. Now in her second season as owner of the Mumbai Grizzlies, Sara thought she'd have her nerves under control by finals day. She didn't. "I try to remain as calm as possible. I don't know if you saw, but I was pulling at the skin around my nails because I was so nervous," she admitted, a refreshingly candid confession that says a lot about how deep her investment in the team runs.
This was Sara's first public foray into sport not as a spectator, but as someone actively shaping what happens behind the scenes. It's a different arena from the one she grew up watching, but Sara says the instinct feels familiar.
"I've only been surrounded by on-field cricket my whole life, so this was something very new and very different for me. There's so much to learn," she said.
Still, some things don't change, no matter the format. "The one thing that is similar between on-field cricket and e-cricket is that there's so much dedication and hard work that really goes into it," she added, a line that could just as easily describe the game her father built his legend on.
The final doubled as a family affair, with three generations, Sara, her mother Anjali Tendulkar, and her grandmother, courtside to watch the Grizzlies battle it out live.
In her second season as an owner, Sara Tendulkar is proving that whether it's on the pitch or on a screen, the Tendulkar name still means showing up fully invested. Her team, the Mumbai Grizzlies, competed in the Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL) Season 3 final this past weekend.
Sachin Tendulkar