Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun leaves Mumbai to play for Goa

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar has decided to quit Mumbai cricket and will now play for Goa.

On Thursday (August 11), Arjun applied for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to move to Goa and it was granted to him by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), according to reports.

The 22-year-old Arjun is a left-arm fast bowler. He played two Twenty20s for Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2021. Arjun has also played for Mumbai Under-14, Under-16, and Under-19 teams.

Also read: Arjun Tendulkar makes debut for Mumbai’s senior squad

According to a statement from Sachin’s SRT Sports Management, Arjun is leaving Mumbai to get maximum game time.

“Getting maximum game-time on the ground is important for Arjun at this juncture of his career. We believe that the shift will improve the probability of Arjun featuring in more competitive matches. He is embarking on a new phase of his cricketing career,” a statement from SRT Sports Management said.

Goa Cricket Association confirmed that it had invited Arjun to join its side.

“We have been looking out for left-hand bowling talent as also add players to the middle order with multiple skills. In this context, we invited Arjun Tendulkar to join the Goa side. We will be playing pre-season trial matches (white ball) and he will be playing in those games. The selectors will then take a call based on his performance,” Goa Cricket Association president Suraj Lotlikar told PTI.

For the last two Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons, Arjun was a part of the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) squad. However, he did not get a chance to play a single game for two years. He was bought by MI for ₹30 lakh, ₹10 lakh more than his base price.

Also read: Arjun Tendulkar dines with English cricketer Wyatt, pic goes viral

Recently, Arjun travelled to England with the MI developmental squad to play T20 games.

After IPL 2022, in May, Sachin had said he told Arjun that the path is “going to be challenging and difficult”.

“This is a different question. What I am thinking or what I feel is not important. The season is already over,” Tendulkar said on the show ‘SachInsight’, when asked whether he would have liked to watch Arjun play in IPL 2022.

“And my conversation with Arjun has always been that the path is going to be challenging, it is going to be difficult. You started playing cricket because you are in love with cricket, continue to do so, continue to work hard and results will follow,” added Sachin.

It is worth recalling that another Indian cricket legend’s son too had left Mumbai to play for another state. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar’s son Rohan Gavaskar played and captained Bengal and later featured in 11 ODIs for India.