It's almost 20 years since Sachin Tendulkar made his international debut, but he his passion for cricket and hunger for runs remains undimmed. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN-IBN he talks about staying motivated, his sporting idols outside of cricket, the massive book called the Sachin Tendulkar Opus, and not tinkering with Tests.

It was not difficult to stay motivated. It was difficult to keep scoring runs because every day is a different day, every bowling attack is different and every surface is different. Sometimes your footwork is good, sometimes your hands are going correctly towards the ball, sometimes you are thinking right but that's not how you will feel every day. But every day, you are motivated to do well for India. And that is why I care about cricket. If you care about cricket, the rest will follow.

At home, there is an unwritten law that if I do well and records are broken, we just distribute sweets at home and keep a box of sweets in front of God and move on. Let the others talk about what I have achieved and we focus on the next game. Right from my school days, we have followed that and that works even today.

I have always been able to keep things simple because my family has played a huge role. My wife, my brother Ajit, my mother, my other brother Nitin, his wife, my uncle and aunt whom I stayed with, my coach and everybody; it's a huge army that goes with me. I represent them in the middle but it is a huge team that works together. And last but not the least, my father who played a huge role in this.

August 12, 2009

Buchanan speaks his mind

Posted on 08/12/2009 in Interviews

Mike O'Connor, from Couriermail, talks to the former Australia coach about varied topics like his stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders, the failures he endured in his role as coach of Middlesex and his early days as an aspiring cricketer.

"There's always people out there who are wanting to make some comment. Once you're out there, then there are people who are supportive and people who have the knives poised all the time and they'll find a reason to plunge the knife."

Shane Warne is one who has wielded the knife on Buchanan and I ask if his stab wounds have healed.

"I think so," he says easily. "The thing about Warnie is that his agendas are pretty open. He just likes to be the centre of attention and be centre stage. He has a good way of managing that and finding his way there."

March 17, 2009

"It was like – is this real?"

Posted on 03/17/2009 in Interviews

Darren Pattinson’s journey over the past year has gone from England Test bowler to Victorian club player. The roof tiler by trade, who was sensationally plucked from obscurity to make his Test debut for the land of his birth, England, against South Africa at Headingley, tells the Wisden Cricketer that returning to England for another season, this time as an established county player and main character of a remarkable chapter in English Test history, will not be different.

Excerpts:
Are you still astonished by your Test appearance?
[Big grin] Yeah, pretty much. It’s sunk in a bit now and looking back, it happened so quick I didn’t get to really enjoy the time. If it ever happened again I’d be a bit better prepared and be able to enjoy it more.

What’s your most vivid memory of the Test?
Just being told I was opening the bowling [Pattinson replaced the injured Ryan Sidebottom]. It was an hour before the game. I went up to Headingley and I didn’t get up there until 10.30 the night before, so I hadn’t met any of the guys and I went down to breakfast and met a few of the guys I didn’t know and then went straight to the ground. It was a bit of a whirlwind.

January 25, 2009

The voice of reason

Posted on 01/25/2009 in Interviews

Michael Holding is worried about the future of the game. The way the cricket world is going, as Holding sees it, is into smaller, consumable bites of Twenty20, with avaricious players and administrators feeding on the carcass like hyenas. Kevin Mitchell, of the Observer, met him in Miami and found a man saddened by what is happening.

"He [Allen Stanford] is not interested in West Indies cricket. As soon as he got in bed with ECB I knew he would walk away from West Indies cricket. He no longer needed it. It was a stepping stone to international cricket."

"The West Indies board and their affiliates are the people responsible for nurturing our game. If they don't put the infrastructure in place then nothing will happen. But the board can't even organise cricketers to go on tour. They landed at an airport in Pakistan and didn't have a visa to enter the country. How can they, when things like that happen, think they can run our game?"

On hindsight

Posted on 01/25/2009 in Interviews

	For Gary Kirsten it's the team which comes foremost and not the coach © Getty Images

Gary Kirsten, who will complete a year as India's coach in March, believes at the end of the day it is the team which comes foremost and not the coach, and that his job is to work behind the scenes, assisting the players in getting as good as they can become. In an interview to Lokendra Pratap Sahi in the Kolkata-based daily, the Telegraph, he says though it’s a challenge, he is comfortable knowing he’ll be judged by results.

Is it an advantage or a disadvantage that you played international cricket till as recently as 2003-04, when the Irfan Pathans made their debut?

It’s a good question... Difficult to say... I’ve tried to stay on the leading edge of coaching... I’ve been into coaching for only a few years... If I may add, somebody like (hand-picked mental conditioning expert) Paddy Upton is so important... It’s important to have him on board instead of getting a consultant to work for a few days every now and then.

Had Yuvraj Singh realised that it would take him eight years for to establish himself in Test cricket, he would have given up the idea. Back after a long struggle, he believes the task to establish himself in the Test team was due to the lack of opportunity as well as his own mistakes. Pradeep Magazine from the Hindustan Times caught up with the left-hand batsman.

Your expectations now?

I can't explain that, but I want to excel, want to be one of the best players to have played this game. It's not going to happen overnight, half my career is over but the other half is left.