SACHIN
TENDULKAR
"The Desperation is
Missing at Times" "If
you lose after competing hard that's fine. If you lose without trying
hard, that's what disappoints me."
By Rohit
Brijnath
 His
captaincy is under debate, his batting scrutinised, his team mocked at.
Yet Sachin Tendulkar does not flinch. In an exclusive interview to
Associate Editor Rohit Brijnath in Mumbai, he spoke out honestly.
Excerpts.
Your captaincy is analysed more than
anyone else's. It's constantly a big talking point. Does that irritate
you?
 I think there's a simple reason. Whenever I've been captain it's been
for tough tours. On the three toughest tours, to South Africa, West
Indies, Australia, I was captain, so it is only but natural. If you play a
tour like that and you play at home and win two games people tend to
forget bad performances. We played in South Africa and after a five-day
gap went to the West Indies. But I wouldn't want to try and prove anything
to people. If somebody understands cricket he'll immediately notice it. I
don't want to say that if we go abroad we perform badly. That's been
happening for years and we have to find a way to overcome these obstacles.
And for that I feel we should start with club cricket and domestic cricket
first, they should be played on good lively tracks that help the fast
bowlers initially.
No point having a Challenger series on
such a wicket?
Yes, I mean how many times in an international game do you get to see
320 runs?
We're not going to learn anything from
it?
Yes, sure. It's important we start with domestic cricket on lively
tracks, the foundation has to be strong. You can't say I'm going to start
with Test cricket and have green tops and all of a sudden expect players
to play on them. It will take three to four years to get used to the
concept.
It's felt that as captain you are too
rigid. Mark Taylor, for instance, couldn't understand why you were talking
to your bowlers all the time.
Like each player has different shots, each captain has different
views. Because Taylor didn't speak to his bowlers doesn't mean he was
doing the right thing. In spite of that they lost here. People discuss
your positive points only when you start winning. If you're losing and you
don't talk to your bowlers, they'd say he is not speaking to his bowlers.
I have got to do what I think is right, not what people think is right
Do you feel one of the problems was our
fast bowlers not being able to maintain a line like Glenn McGrath did?
I thought there was not enough discipline in our bowling. But there's
no point pointing fingers at the bowlers. The batsmen could have done much
better. Ramesh, Saurav and Rahul, among them scored only one 50 in six
Test innings. That shows the batting wasn't up to the mark. But there were
many aspects, like the ball rising more than expected.
Greg Chappell said you take losing very
personally.
Of course, I take it personally because you're playing for the
country. You're thinking about winning all games, why should you think of
losing? And when you lose it's very disappointing. If you lose after
competing hard it's fine, but if you lose without trying hard enough, I
feel that's where the problem is, that's what disappoints me the most.
You think that's what happened?
Yes, we've been trying but at that level we're not competitive enough.
Are you enjoying your batting? You're
less flamboyant and more cautious.
You have to adapt to the situation. Earlier I was enjoying myself ...
even now I am, but it's a different type of enjoyment. When you become a
senior member of the side there are a few responsibilities. But if you
look back, in Melbourne we were 20 for 2 or something and I went and
played my shots, whereas in Adelaide I played seven maiden overs of
McGrath because I thought I was controlling the game at that time. People
felt it was Glenn who was controlling the game but it was up to me to play
the ball or not. I felt their plan was to keep bowling there and play with
my patience and if I showed a lot of patience then they wouldn't have any
other alternative. And I was successful doing that. The next morning when
he bowled the same line I was hitting him because I knew I was in control.
Is batting not fun anymore?
It's not the same as it used to be.
Because of the team's frailty do you
feel the pressure of having to score?
The pressure is there, not because of the team but because of my own
expectations. I'm not thinking if this guy doesn't perform I'll have to
score those 25 extra runs. I'm not thinking of that because if I set high
standards for myself, then I have to think about what I have to do. The
others are obviously trying their best, but if I can maintain that graph
then it's automatically good for the team.
Are they trying hard enough?
They're trying but it's just not happening sometimes. Sometimes I
thought we lacked in effort and that's very disappointing. I've said
before that if someone is not very successful I wouldn't be so harsh, but
if someone is not trying hard enough that's not good for my team.
Do you think the umpires targeted you?
I wouldn't want to use the word "target"; it was probably a
coincidence, to put it in a better way.
There is a criticism that you've scored
22 of your 24 one-day hundreds on the subcontinent.
No, I think that can't be an argument because more than half of my
Test centuries were scored outside India. I can ask people one thing:
which type of cricket is harder to play, where do the bowlers try to get
the batsmen out, in one-day cricket or Tests?
As captain you aren't responsive enough
at press conferences, you seem to avoid anything controversial?
I'm more worried about what I should be doing on the ground than off
the field. I'm good at cricket and cricket is only played on the field.
But you're the voice of Indian cricket.
When the ICC allowed Shoaib to play you refused to comment.
I don't want to find myself in these kind of things. That's the ICC's
problem and I've always believed in not interfering in other people's
lives.
But as captain you can't keep ducking
issues.
I didn't accept the captaincy for this. Probably I should have said
Shoaib's action is clear or not clear for X reasons. But people forget
about it. One thing that sounds foolish to me is that whatever Moin Khan
or Wasim Akram says about us appears in our papers. I find it funny, they
should be thinking of Pakistan cricket, not Indian cricket.
But I think it's part of their game plan
to say these things and irritate our team.
It doesn't, as far as our team is concerned ... somebody from their
team commented that Srinath chucks. It's like making a fool of yourself.
Is there a conspiracy to keep Azhar out
of the team?
No. If someone is performing well and will do a good job, win games
for the country, I don't mind. I don't have fixed ideas that I don't want
this player or that. I've never had problems with any player for the past
10 years, so how can there be problems overnight? I lost my captaincy and
played under Azhar and then he played under me and there haven't been any
problems.
There is talk that Dighe is in the team
because he's from Mumbai.
One reason India hasn't been successful is because people are only
worried about pulling each other down. And that's why India will never
improve, unless we change our mentality. Last time there was only one
player from Mumbai in the team, Abey Kuruvilla, and now there are two,
Ajit and Samir. If someone is good he should play for India. If I feel
someone's occupying a space he doesn't deserve, he should be thrown (out).
When I was captain earlier there were six players from Karnataka. If I
thought that way I'd never pick so many.
If a certain player is not doing what
you want, and you drop him there will be a great protest from that region.
Is that unfortunate?
That's the biggest problem in India. People take it zonally. We don't
have a broader vision. We're not like Australia. If he's playing well
they'll pick a player from any region. If someone's not performing they
drop him. They're not worried and that's the reason for their success
Were you disappointed that we weren't
tougher? Srinath would have one good spell then fade, fielding was poor,
batsmen were up and down.
I felt it was disappointing. There are times when you are tired but
you still have to push yourself and that wasn't happening.
You didn't accept it during the series
but do you now agree the Australians were a far better team?
Oh yeah, there's no question about it. If I don't accept it I'm a
fool. If someone's better, there's no shame in accepting it. But that
doesn't mean they are 100 per cent going to win. That was my thinking. I
would never say during a series that they were better than us and we can't
do anything.
They beat us in every department,
batting, bowling, fielding, mentally. Is it good that we know how behind
we are and how hard we need to work to be a great team?
Yes, it's very simple thinking. I feel one should not try and learn
things at this level. You should learn this at first-class level. When a
player comes to the team he should not waste three or four years trying to
learn all these things and then start using his experience.
I agree, but does it frustrate you that
Ganguly, who is no learner, doesn't know how to ground his bat? And he did
it again in Adelaide.
Yes, he just survived. It's frustrating, in spite of having told
somebody. These are things you should not even have to tell them. I
wouldn't want to back him for this. I would back the team whatever
mistakes they make, but these sorts of mistakes you can't. Even Jadeja did
this in New Zealand, in Napier, and it's hard to forget what happened. It
was a crucial stage of the game. This was also crucial, if Saurav had
stayed on, the result might have been different.
You know backing up, such things can be
learnt. Do we not practise it, is there a problem with commitment?
We do practise this. It's not the commitment it's the presence of mind
(that's missing). At that particular moment you should know, if you've
practised for so many years or told your mind before you go to bed that
you have to do this then it will happen. These are common things, like
covering the stumps. If you get a good ball (when batting) or you don't
get your bowling rhythm right, that's fine. But to go to the stumps (to
back up), you don't require rhythm.
What three things would you like from
the Aussies?
Fielding. And they are very disciplined. At one stage, McGrath, even
though he's their strike bowler, was asked to do a particular job. No
yorkers, nothing, he was just asked to maintain a line nine inches outside
off stump and make me leave as many deliveries as possible. And he did
that throughout. That was discipline.
You said that you'd like to see more
competition for places. Do people take their places for granted?
At times, I get that feeling. It's not intentional but happens
subconsciously. Someone knows he's become an established player so an
error or two here or there is fine, but that shouldn't be the attitude.
Is pride missing? Sunil Gavaskar was
upset someone gave away an India cap. What are your thoughts?
I'm not trying to say what Gavaskar says is wrong or right. From my
personal point of view I don't think by giving something away you don't
have pride or that you have pride by keeping things in a suitcase.
Whatever pride you have, you have to show it on the ground.
Is there enough pride, desperation,
hunger?
I feel the desperation is missing at times
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