Mereko tum logo ne jaan bujh ke daraya" - When Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar scared an Indian legend with a ghost story

Former India cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar is renowned as one of the finest batters the country has produced. However, according to another former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, despite his legendary reputation, Vengsarkar is someone who is scared of ghost stories.

In an episode of Sportskeeda's special show SK Tales in April 2021, Manjrekar narrated a funny incident from India's tour of New Zealand in 1989-90 when he and Sachin Tendulkar scared Vengsarkar with a horror story. Revisiting the funny incident, Manjrekar said:

"Those who know Dilip Vengsarkar also know that he is a bit like children, who get scared of horror stories at night. That is a weakness of his and he could never overcome it even with advancing age. In New Zealand, Sachin Tendulkar was a kid and I was also young. But we all used to be together even though there was a lot of age gap between the three of us."

During the 90s, players used to share room, but since Vengsarkar was a senior, he used to get a single room. The same was the case during the New Zealand tour as well. One day after dinner, Tendulkar, Manjrekar and Vengsarkar were talking a walk. On what happened next, Manjrekar added:

"Tendulkar and me started stories about how there was a village where a woman died and how her spirit created trouble. Vengsarkar wasn't participating in the discussion, but was trying to make an effort to not hear anything. So, we continued the story and created that scary atmosphere. After that we said our goodbyes. Sachin and I went to our room and Vengsarkar went to his.

After sometime, there was a knock on the door of the room in which Tendulkar and Manjrekar were staying. Concluding the story, the latter recalled:

"It was Vengsarkar, who had come with his pillows and everything. He told us, 'mereko tum logo ne jaan bujh ke daraya' (you guys scared me on purpose)."

After hearing the horror story, Vengsarkar couldn't sleep alone in his room and decided to sleep in the room shared by Tendulkar and Manjrekar.

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Dilip Vengsarkar's stats for Team India

Vengsarkar (69) played 116 Tests for India between 1976 and 1992. The elegant stroke player scored 6,868 runs at an average of 42.13, with 17 hundreds and 35 half-centuries. He famously scored three hundreds against England at Lord's.

In ODIs, the right-hander played 129 games and scored 3,508 runs at an average of 34.73. Vengsarkar hit one hundred in the format to go with 23 half-centuries.