The Big Secret: When Sachin Tendulkar turned up for Pakistan!

New Delhi: We all know that batting great Sachin Tendulkar made his India debut against arch-rivals Pakistan in 1989. But another fact remain hidden from public is that the Little Master actually tasted his first international cricket, turning up for bitter rivals, and that too against India.

Two years before his international debut in Karachi in 1989, a 13-year-old Tendulkar took the field a substitute for legendary Imran Khan's team during an exhibition match with India at Mumbai's Brabourne stadium on January 20, 1987.

It's reported that Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir left the field at lunch time and Sachin was asked to field in the 40-overs-a-side match. Imran deployed him at long-on and soon Kapil Dev hit a skier in his direction. Despite running 15 metres, Sachin could not reach the ball.

Later, Sachin relived the incident in his book 'Playing it My Way', wherein he wrote "I don't know whether Imran Khan remembers this or has any idea that I once fielded for his Pakistan team".

Another interesting facet that Sachin mentioned in his book was that the batting maestro remembers complaining to a friend that he could have taken the catch had he been positioned at mid-on instead of long-on.

For the record, Ravi Shastri's Indians chased down Pakistan’s 189 to win by six wickets, with Mohammad Azharuddin and Roger Binny scoring 80 and 63 runs respectively.