Enjoyed every on-field moment: Sachin Tendulkar

People look and marvel yoursquove played longer now than Bradman over 20 years he played and of course he had the war years in between and your workload is extraordinary have you got special mental powers Irsquove basically enjoyed every moment on the field Irsquom not really going around counting the number of fields that Irsquove played Itrsquos been thorough pleasure being out there and representing your country Irsquove enjoyed every moment and thatrsquos why itrsquos lasted so long and Irsquom glad that the passion and the desire to do well is still there I mean 20 years has gone by but I donrsquot feel it I donrsquot feel it probably still young at heart and I still want to jump around in the middle and I still want to do various things on the cricket field Itrsquos an extraordinary career that yoursquove had Yoursquove played all the great grounds yoursquove seen all the great grounds have you got one that stands out your favourite ground In India it has to be without any doubt Chennai Irsquove always enjoyed playing on that ground and Irsquove had special matches there Outside India it has to be Sydney Itrsquos a hard one to ask but is there one cricketer above all others that you admire I grew up watching Sunil Gavaskar and Vivian Richards so without any doubt these two players for me because they have always been my heroes one for his solid technique and solid defence and concentration grit and the other one for effortless hitting just demoralising all the bowlers across the world it was fantastic to watch both of them Sachin Tendulkar in 2003 PicGetty Images Approach to fitness training and diethellip it has changed enormously through your career over 21 years have you always paid a lot of attention to the physical aspects of it and to diet as well Irsquove had my own ways of training because I feel for a batsman itrsquos important that you run well between the wickets and if you can manage to do those shuttles in specific given time and your recovery is good then I think for a batsman that kind of fitness is more than enough because at no stage are you going to run 140 metres or five kilometres at a stretch Cricket is all about sprinting itrsquos all explosive work and if I can manage that and recover quickly to play the next ball then I think Irsquom fit enough to be there on the field the entire day So my workouts have always been more of shuttle work than long distance running Irsquove never really enjoyed long distance running but shuttles I donrsquot mind doing that and diet it is difficult I am fond of food I love eating whatever I see I want to eat that and it really doesnrsquot matter whether itrsquos Thai cuisine Japanese Chinese Indian Malaysian or continental or whatever roast chicken anything and everything I enjoy That has been a big problem to deal with because to be in good shape you have to try and stay away from the things that are not good for a sportsman I make an effort but itrsquos difficult Itrsquos interesting communications with family over the years and the importance of it because you spend so much time on the road itrsquos interesting talking to players back in the 40rsquos and 50rsquos and now of course things are so dramatically different How important is it for you to make contact when you are away and how do you do it Initially it was difficult especially when Arjun was born It was difficult because for the first almost five years of his life he didnrsquot speak to me on the phone at all because he couldnrsquot take the pain of his father leaving his place and going for two months away from him and where he was not going to see me at all It was a bit difficult for him to handle and I spoke to a lot of guys and thatrsquos a protective mechanism he just wants to switch off from everything and then when I got back home he would be around me for two or three days It would be difficult to tell him that yoursquove got to go to school because he just wanted to spend time with me so it was difficult to deal with that But now he obviously realises what Irsquove been doing for so many years and he respects that things are different things are easier but those five years in between not being able to speak to my son I could speak to my daughter because she understood but my son it was a little difficult for him to understand But with the rest of the family members it was absolutely fine I speak to my brother on virtually a daily basis and we talk a lot about cricket and also what I should be doing the next year or what was happening the last match why did I do certain things or whatever or only to get better every day and Irsquove followed this process since my school days Enjoying an IPL moment The challenging moments yoursquove had many is there one perhaps the one yoursquove already mentioned that was the most challenging moment yoursquove had in a match or seems so There have been many challenging moments in my career and I would say the most challenging was to deal with my injuries and especially the tennis elbow injury It was tough because I could not though I was mentally wanting to go out and do various things on the field physically the body was just not cooperating and I tried a lot of things I wanted to play a fourTest match series against Australia in 200405 in India and I ended up missing the first two Tests where even in the morning of the Test match I was making the final effort to play by taking a couple of injections but somehow it didnrsquot work and because it was towards the start of the season it was a little difficult to rest for twothree months and then come back I didnrsquot want to miss any matches and I played that season Then I got operated on after that and recovery took almost four to fourandahalf months and in those months a lot went through my mind I thought I might not be able to hold a cricket bat again because I tried lifting au00a0Continued on page 26u00a0bat after three threeandahalf months and I hit a few balls and I had these 10yearold boys stopping the ball at a 15 yard circle and I said ldquothis doesn39t look goodrdquo and I actually got worried after that I thought that this is the end of my career Irsquove had sleepless nights because of that so I think that time was the toughest phase of my life to deal with and my family had a huge role to play here especially my wife She showed me the positive side of life where in 200405 by then Irsquod already completed 15 years and she told me that many guys donrsquot last for 15 months and here yoursquove been able to play for 15 years so you should be thankful to the Almighty for allowing you to play for 15 years without major injury and this is the first major injury that you are dealing with so not everything is lost you will recover That made a huge difference it just changed the way I thought Irsquove got a fair idea of what your answer to this one will be which cricketer would you have most liked to have batted with and why I think I have to say three names here the two names obviously are my heroes Gavaskar and Richards and the third one definitely would be Sir Don Irsquove batted with Brian Lara and Irsquove batted with some great players from my team but definitely Sir Don Sachin Tendulkar with Sir Don Bradman at the Australian greatrsquos home in 1998 PicMiD DAY Archives Your most memorable moment mdash therersquos been so many either as a player or as an observer is there one that rides above all others I think the most memorable moment has to be the first time I wore the India cap the first time I walked on the field as an international player playing for India was my dream and I always felt that there can be nothing bigger than playing for India for me in life and I wanted to achieve that somehow so that has to be the most memorable moment of my life The spirit of the game has become a big issue and it is enshrined now in the laws of the game What does the spirit mean to you I think everyone wants to win noone wants to lose and both the teams go out to win but there is only one team that can win As long as itrsquos played in the right spirit and it has to be competitive There might be a couple of words exchanged here and there as long as we are within the boundary lines I think that is fine but I think the problem starts when you cross the line and sometimes I think the players fail to realise that Aggression has to be within and if you control aggression then it always brings you success but the problem starts when you lose control trying to be aggressive you sort of lose control over yourself and then there is a heavy price to be paid for that And how optimistic are you for the future of the game Itrsquos going through a spectacular stage of evolution at the moment isn39t it Yes I mean the introduction of T20 it has been really big and IPL the whole world has taken notice of that and then this has gone beyond the cricketing world I mean China and places like that yoursquove had people discussing cricket which is good for cricket You need more and more audience and one has been able to achieve that as a cricketer I am extremely proud of that but to me I think Test cricket will always be No 1 That is where the real challenges lie the true test of onersquos character is tested there Cricket to me is about learning to change the pace of the game and that can only be achieved in Test cricket and to a certain extent maybe in oneday cricket and when somebody is bowling well maybe a couple of balls here and there you need to just see the bowler through but in Test cricket sometimes there are spells and sometimes the guys bowl well in patches so maybe for an hour hour and a half you are just looking to survive So to me Tests will always be No 1 but T20 is also good I mean it is exciting People come and enjoy cricket oneday cricket is in between you know there is some sort of pace you have to live with you have to keep the scoreboard ticking and you have no option in oneday cricket T20 you obviously go beyond that you have to look to hit big shots right from ball 1 but the whole package I would say people sometimes tend to get carried away if somebody has done well in T20 then they talk about his inclusion in Test cricket which I feel is unfair That is not the right platform to judge if somebody is good enough to play Test cricket I think to play Test cricket you need to judge onersquos ability from firstclass cricket the longer version of the game and Irsquove heard that ICC is actually making an effort to make Test cricket a daynight but I donrsquot know wersquove not been successful retaining the colour of the ball so that will definitely be the major obstacle which one has to cross that hurdle first and then think about daynight Test matches To me I think that day Test matches is the best option Itrsquos interesting to explore the makeup of the Indian cricketer I think people would say from back in the 60rsquos and 70rsquos there was a passiveness even a submissiveness about the Indian cricketer and now the modern Indian cricketer more combative perhaps more aggressive reflecting a new more proud India is there some truth in that observation Well I think that the first half of my career we didnrsquot have as much success away from India but then we started from 2000 onwards I felt we started touring well We went to South Africa we beat South Africa We went to West Indies and we beat West Indies we went to Australia we beat Australia so wherever we went we were able to win Test matches and that is something that helps the teams progress because if you are doing well in Test matches the standard of playing naturally gets better and we were able to do that We went to Pakistan and we were able to beat Pakistan twice in Pakistan So that changed the approach and because of that the youngsters getting in the side in the early stages of their career got the taste of victory away from India and how big and how important it is so we all understood the importance of that and we started believing that away from India you can go and have the opposition in trouble I think people from all round the world look at you with great admiration mdash how you manage your fame particularly in this country where you are really a living god in the eyes of so many How do you manage that I keep things simple Irsquom not an outgoing person as such I like to spend time with my family and then whatever the commercial commitments are and other than that I like to spend the time home and with my close friends So as far as Irsquom concerned I keep things simple and this is how my life has been Yes I mean there are certain things which I cannot do but Irsquove not been able to do those things for the last 20 years so I donrsquot miss them Captaincy probably provided you with one of your greatest challenges you set just high standards for everything you do was it a disappointment that you couldn39t stay longer in the leadership did you feel suited to it or not suited to it I became captain for Mumbai in 19921993 and that was when I was literally 20 years old and we won the championship as well at that time so I don39t think captaincy was a big hurdle because I39d had success captaining Mumbai But for India we were close to beating West indies in West Indies South Africa in South Africa but somehow we were not able to cross the final hurdle In Barbados we needed 120 runs in the fourth innings to win and we couldn39t score those 120 runs which was a huge disappointment and then in South Africa in Johannesburg we needed three wickets in 25 or 30 overs to win that Test match and it was rained off so we came close to it and these are the moments when you are able to pull off a victory it gives a new dimension to your side now the team starts thinking differently and obviously it was a big challenge to play Australia in Australia not many sides have gone there and beaten them and they definitely had the upper hand throughout the series it was a difficult series for us and the batters didn39t have a pleasant time there So all these factors taken into consideration yes it was difficult I have to admit that What did you expect of yourself as a captain did you make big demands of yourself Well I obviously had high expectations of my teammates and high standards set by our expectations actually because I felt there were some brilliant players in that team and there were a few players who didnrsquot have a good time away from India So if I have to compare todayrsquos team to a team that was 10 years ago or maybe 1314 years ago today we have more matchwinners in the team without any doubt I know you donrsquot like to dwell on it but have you had any thoughts about after cricket Well as of now nothing All my energy is spent thinking about cricket playing cricket preparing myself for various matches it is the postmatch recovery or the prematch preparation that takes up a lot of time not only physical demands but also mentally yoursquove got to be there I donrsquot want to divide my energy The thought process should be channelled in one direction it should not go in various directions at this moment and that one direction is cricket right now There is time for a lot of other things to happen in life and when the time demands Irsquoll think of it Right now itrsquos cricket I know you39ve always felt uncomfortable about it the famous line of Sir Donald to his wife ldquocome down and have a look at this boy he reminds me of merdquo What has it meant to you Well all I can say is Irsquom very happy and extremely delighted that Sir Don himself actually had to say this about my batting style and when I got to know about this I think it was 199495 thatrsquos when I actually heard about this I clearly remember we were playing a tournament in Sharjah and somebody told me this is what Sir Don had to say about you I didnrsquot know how to react to that After that obviously the greatest moment came when I got the opportunity to wish him on his 90th birthday and then spend about an hour with him It was fantastic and I was so excited At the same time I didnrsquot know how to react to that because I went there and I just stood in front of him like a schoolboy and whatever he said I just grasped I was with Warnie and we were discussing driving all the way to Sir Donrsquos house mdash what would be your question Irsquom thinking of asking this question and we were discussing It was fantastic experienceu00a0 Worth a visit The Bradman Museum and International Cricket Hall of Fame is situated on St Jude Street Bowral NSW 2576u00a0 Website wwwinternationalcrickethallcom