Australian great Dennis Lillee on Monday recalled his first meeting with Sachin Tendulkar and said on a lighter note that he did the game a "favour" by rejecting the batsman when he went to the MRF Pace Foundation with an ambition to become a fast bowler in the late 80s.

Hoping to become a pacer, Tendulkar went to the MRF Pace Foundation in 1987. But his ambitions were crushed by the foundation's coaching director, Lillee who advised the then young Tendulkar to focus on his batting instead of bowling.