Ernie Els a Tendulkar Fan!

Sweet swinging Ernie Els is a Sachin Tendulkar fan!

Els is here in Delhi for the Indian Masters, first European Tour event in the country. After the customary press conference, I managed a one-on-one with ‘The Big Easy’ on condition of mentioning the name of a particular watch, of which Els is the global brand ambassador, in my story.

So I got the chance to get an ‘exclusive’ and half of my questions were, as you might guess, on cricket. Make no mistake, the world number four played cricket, tennis, rugby and golf with the same vigour in his childhood before he decided to swap everything for the club.

Here is what he has to say on Indian cricket:

India is definitely a good cricketing side. I think they are the number two team in the world, right after Australia. They are quite a competitive side and most of their batsmen are quite aggressive.

On Tendulkar:

He is an unbelievable player, one of greatest players ever. I love watching him.

On other players:

Your (One-day) captain Mr Dhoni is also a good striker of the ball. I also like Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. You have a good (Test) captain in Anil Kumble as well.

On his cricketing days:

I was an all-rounder and bowled medium pace.

Well, cricket’s loss turned out to be golf’s gain. This guy is working on a three-year plan to oust Tiger Woods from the world number one spot.

At 6’4”, Ernie is truly a giant of the game and as was the case, I was looking up to him literally. And when it was over and we shook hands, my small hand was lost in his huge paw. But the guy is a genius and incredibly humble with an air of serenity about him. And he has been a perfect ambassador of the game, traveling to different parts of the globe, even if that meant ruffling the feather of the PGA Tour authority.

When he is not playing, Ernie is into wine making business and he is looking for marketing his labels in India. He also plans to design golf course here at some point of time.

Image: Getty Images