An interview with Tendulkar

RAJKOT, India, Nov 8 (Reuters), 2005
Sachin Tendulkar says he willcontinue to bat aggressively despite a spate of wear and tear injuries in thelast few years.India's premier batsman has made another successful comebackafter six months out following elbow surgery, top-scoring with 93 and 67 not outin the current one-day series against Sri Lanka."If I see it, I hit it,"Tendulkar told Reuters before the sixth match of the series. "I try and keepeverything simple."Tendulkar said he never had concerns about returning to thenational side."I've been around long enough. I was pretty confident of mybatting obviously, that is where my strength lies," he said.The 32-year-oldMumbai batsman, speaking as he fixed cracks in his bat with glue, said it wasinitially difficult on his return in the first game in Nagpur, where he sufferedcramp."It was a little tough on my body because I hadn't played a match insix-and-a-half months," he said. "To straightaway get into a match where therewas a lot of running around involved."MENTALLY TOUGHTendulkar said theinjury also demanded a lot of patience."In between it was tough, extremelytough mentally and physically. Mentally probably more because I wanted to getback in action and had to somehow stay away from the action and build all themuscles properly."Tendulkar burst on to the international scene as a16-year-old in 1989 and has set scored more than 13,000 one-day internationalruns and 38 centuries, both records.He also jointly holds the record for mosttest centuries (34) with compatriot Sunil Gavaskar and is one of only fivebatsmen to score more than 10,000 test runs.His feats have taken a heavy tollon his body, however, and he has suffered hand, foot, ankle and finger injuries."I'm quite happy that for the first 10 years I didn't miss a single game becauseof injuries," he said. "That, I feel, is a positive thing to have happened tome."Sometimes things can be very unfortunate. Not because of your fitness, butdue to some freakish reasons and you just get injured."TEAM MENTORTendulkar,a former captain of India who has been asked by coach Greg Chappell to be theteam's mentor, said he relished helping other players."I don't change myapproach, whether someone is 15 years junior to me or five or 10 years," hesaid. "The basic idea is to share one's experiences and thoughts, and I havealways done that."I've always believed everyone is a student of this game andthat nobody can put up his hand and say 'I know everything about this game.'"Tendulkar's comeback has inspired India, who ended a poor run of one-day form bynotching four victories in a row to clinch the seven-match series against SriLanka.He attributed the turnaround to a positive approach by the players."It'sa wheel, once you push it, it rolls on its own and gathers momentum, which waswhat was missing, he said, adding that Chappell's presence was making adifference."He is among the top players to have played this game. Obviously histhinking is different, it has influenced the way the team approaches the game."It is not only about technique, not only about practical things, but thetheories, which, sitting back in the room you can visualise so many things andstart thinking differently."Tendulkar hopes the team can maintain the momentumuntil the 2007 World Cup, but said it would be one step at a time for himself."I think it is important to focus more on the near future. It's like a cameralens. The moment you start focusing on things which are far off, you lose focusof things close to you."India have a busy season ahead. They play five homeone-dayers against South Africa later this month before Sri Lanka return to playthree tests. They tour Pakistan in January and host England in March-April.