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Sachin Tendulkar is one of cricket’s greatest players, with a record 100 international centuries and over 34,000 runs. His skill and dedication have inspired countless cricketers.
Beyond his stats, Tendulkar is known for his sportsmanship and humility, earning love and respect both on and off the field. He has played a key role in promoting cricket worldwide and uniting fans, making him a true ambassador of the sport.
Sachin Tendulkar is one of the most loved cricketers in the world, he is probably among the few cricketers who are loved by all the generations. One thing that makes him truly special is that he never cashed upon his popularity. Unlike other celebrities and top celebrities, Sachin has never promoted anything that goes beyond his moral ground.
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The Powerful Advice from Sachin Tendulkar’s Father
In an interview, Sachin recalled a valuable piece of advice from his father at the start of his career: never promote tobacco products. This simple yet powerful principle that he inherited from his father has guided Sachin’s choices off the field, showing his commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles.
“When I started playing for India, I had just come out of school. I started getting many advertisement offers but my father told me never to promote tobacco products. I got many such offers but never accepted any of them,” Tendulkar said.
Staying True to His Values: Rejecting Tobacco and Alcohol Offers
For the unversed, Sachin Tendulkar was only 23 years old when he made a choice that set him apart from many of his teammates during the 1996 World Cup. While most of them had stickers of tobacco brands on their bats, Tendulkar chose not to put any stickers on his bat throughout the tournament.
The main sponsor of the 1996 World Cup was Wills, a well-known tobacco company. Given Tendulkar’s fame, they likely offered him a lot of money to display their brand on his bat. However, even at that young age, he understood the difference between right and wrong.
“This was a promise I made to my father. He told me I am a role model and a lot of people will follow what I do. That is why I have never endorsed tobacco products or alcohol. In the 1990s my bat didn’t have a sticker on it, I didn’t have a contract. But everybody else in the team was endorsing two brands in particular – Wills and Four Square,” The Statesman quoted Tendulkar as saying.
“I didn’t break the promise that I gave to my father by not endorsing these brands. I got many offers from them to endorse their brand by having their sticker on my bat but I didn’t want to promote all that. I have stayed away from these two things and have never broken the promise to my father,” he added.
However, that wasn’t the only incident when Sachin Tendulkar refused to promote tobacco or alcohol. In 2010, Sachin Tendulkar turned down a Rs 20 crore offer from the UB Group to endorse their alcohol products. He also refused to appear in IPL ads for brands linked to addictive substances.
His decision showed maturity and awareness, something that many famous people only gain much later in life.
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