In a heartwarming glimpse into Sachin Tendulkar’s personal life, it’s revealed that his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta, once envisioned a different kind of match for her daughter Anjali Mehta. Annabel had hoped her daughter would marry a tall and handsome man — but destiny had other plans when Sachin, who was younger and not particularly tall, entered their lives.
Sachin Tendulkar found love with Anjali, who is four years his senior. Annabel, originally from Solihull, England, had married Anand Mehta from Mumbai’s Gujarati business community after meeting him while pursuing her postgraduate degree at the London School of Economics.
Despite facing strong opposition from her own family for moving to India, Annabel built a life in Mumbai. Reflecting in her memoir My Passage to India, she described how she first met a young Sachin Tendulkar — charming, famous, but still very much a boy when he expressed his wish to marry Anjali.
Annabel candidly admitted that she had imagined Anjali marrying someone taller and more mature. “Dark and handsome, Sachin was. But at nineteen, he was still a boy. Barely taller than Anjali,” she wrote, humorously noting that Sachin’s iconic bouncy hair might have given him a little extra height.
Despite her initial reservations, Sachin’s sincerity and genuine love for Anjali won over the family. He was clear about his intentions from the beginning, and his devotion shattered Annabel’s early expectations but paved the way for a beautiful relationship filled with love and respect.
