Sachin Tendulkar is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in cricket history. The Indian great, served as a major inspiration for the current crop of cricketers, is affectionately known as 'Sachin paaji' by his former teammates, which means brother.
Former Indian fast bowler Ashish Nehra has now revealed the origin of the association of the word 'paaji' with Tendulkar. Nehra revealed that it was Tendulkar's knock of 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup, which earned the batting great this name.
“Before this, we used to call him Sachin or Sachin ‘bhai’ (brother). The first time we used the word ‘paaji’ was after the 2003 World Cup match against Pakistan,” Nehra said during an appearance on Star Sports.
"On our way back to the hotel, in the bus, Harbhajan Singh started singing in the back ‘Paaji No. 1’. So that’s how everyone started calling Sachin Tendulkar paaji. Before him, there was only one paaji, who was Kapil paaji.”
Sachin Tendulkar's 98-run knock in widely regarded as one of the great World Cup knocks of all-time. It was the batting of the highest class as Tendulkar demolished the Pakistan pace attack, which comprised of star players like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar.
India chased the 274-run target with six wickets to spare. However, the match is almost always reminisced for Tendulkar's brutal show against the Pakistan bowlers. It was also during this innings when the 'Master Blaster' crossed 12,000 runs in ODIs
