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Local taxi driver Mohammed Aftab is a staunch Sachin Tendulkar fan and he does not mind picking up a fight with his friends when it comes to defending the master batsman’s current poor form.

Aftab said that when the Indian team arrived at the Peshawar International Airport Friday evening, his main aim was to take Tendulkar’s autograph. But due to the tight security he could not go anywhere near the Mumbai master.

‘I went to take his autograph. I knew some people at the airport as I always pick up passengers from there, so it would have been easy for me,’ he said after the Indian and Pakistani teams reached here for the first one-day international to be played here Monday. ‘But the security was too tight and I could not get his signature. He is a great batsman.’

Aftab said Tendulkar was the best batsman in the Indian team and that it was a matter of time when he returns to peak form in the one-dayers.

‘When he got out in the second innings of the third Test at Karachi a few days ago, off a ball that kept very low, I waited for the umpire to declare it a ‘dead ball’,’ he said, cursing the umpire for denying him a chance to see his hero bat longer.

‘The umpire should have declared it a ‘dead ball’,’ he stressed. ‘I picked up a fight with my Pakistani friends when we discussed his dismissal.’

Source: Yahoo News

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