Out-of-favour England pacer Tim Bresnan claimed that he and Australian umpire Rod Tucker both received death threats after former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar was denied his 100th international century during a 2011 Test.
Bresnan said Tendulkar, who had hit his 99th ton during the 2011 World Cup against South Africa, was batting on 91 in the second innings of the fourth Test at the Oval when he was adjudged LBW by Tucker.
“This ball, it was probably missing leg anyway, and umpire Rod [Tucker], Aussie lad, shot him out. He was on 80-odd as well [91], definitely going to get it [his century]. We win the series and go to number one in the world,” Bresnan said on the Yorkshire Cricket: Covers Off podcast.
“We both got death threats, me and this umpire, we got death threats for ages after. I got them on Twitter and he had people writing to him to his home address and stuff, getting proper death threats going, ‘How dare you give him out? It was missing leg’.”
According to Bresnan, Tucker had to step up his security due to the death threats.
“I caught up with him a few months later and he was like, ‘Mate, I’ve had to get a security guard and stuff.’ He had police protection around his house in Australia,” the 35-year-old said.
Stranded on 99 hundreds, Tendulkar had to wait for quite sometime to achieve the unique feat of 100 centuries as he went without scoring a ton in four outings in the 2011 World Cup and also missed the West Indies tour.
He eventually achieved the milestone in 2012 Asia Cup when he scored a ton against Bangladesh.
Tendulkar, who retired in October 2013, still holds the record of being the only batsman to hit 100 international tons. He ended his career with 15921 and 18426 runs in Tests and One-Day Internationals respectively.