The Hindu : Sport : `Team needs are more important'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 21, 2005

Sport

Sport

`Team needs are more important'

G. Viswanath

LOOKING FORWARD: Sachin Tendulkar says that with age he has matured into a different batsman and hopes to recover before the 16-week time frame.

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar's mind is quite calm and he is patient. Last October, he forced himself to the field of play. His little cameo helped India beat Australia at the Wankhede stadium, but a troubling elbow-joint that surfaced a year ago has been operated upon and the Indian batting maestro is under a rehabilitation programme. "The doctors (in England) told me to be prepared to wait for 16 weeks (he was operated on May 23) before I can start playing. But things can get better earlier,'' said Tendulkar at his residence in Bandra West on Saturday.

Before leaving to train under Vijay Alva at the Taj Lands' End gymnasium, Tendulkar spoke to The Hindu about his recovery and his present outlook towards batting and the `Ashes' series which he said was "fantastic cricket and the perfect Ashes series so far.''

Excerpts:

Since 1999 you have suffered various injuries. How have you dealt with them?

I have endured a bad hamstring and shoulder related injury also other than lower back, foot, finger and elbow injuries. If you are going to consistently push yourself hard, injuries are going to happen. At competitive levels in any sport, it's very normal to see the players go down with injuries. We have seen that happening in the Olympics and World championships. As far as I am concerned, it's part and parcel of any sport. When injuries have happened to me, I have overcome most of the obstacles.

This injury (Tennis elbow) has been there with me for a year now. If I remember right it happened on August 18 last year. I just have to keep trying hard to overcome this. This injury is nothing to do with my fitness, like my finger injury and also the toe. These are probably unavoidable. Nobody knows the reason why it happens. I feel that I have to be mentally tough. Each injury is going to have a different time frame for recovery. I have got to respect that.

About your brilliant century against Pakistan at Chennai in 1999, bearing a painful lower back?

It happened while I was playing. I started cramping in my forearms, between my index finger and thumb and the hamstring. I was finding it difficult to stretch the muscles of the lower part of my body, because of dehydration. I was consuming plenty of fluids, but the heat was really sapping.

Talking about hydrating oneself, not many people know that I use an alarm to wake up at particular times to just drink water in the night. I used to make it a point to stuff myself with water in the middle of the night, because it's not what you do in the morning that's important, but what you do 10 or 12 hours before the start of play. I have gone to that extent to hydrate myself.

Obviously you are being very cautious this time?

The doctors have clearly said that I should be prepared for 16 weeks to resume playing. I have been just following the rehab programmes advised to me by the doctors and the physio. I will see to it that they are equally happy at the end of it all. There has to be unanimity in having fully recovered. Maybe, my recovery can happen earlier than 16 weeks.

S.K. Nair and John Gloster have said that you could probably determine your own fitness?

No. It will have to be a unanimous decision involving the doctors, physio and myself. I have to face balls delivered with the bowlers going flat out, with cricket balls from 22 yards.... it cannot be 60 or 80 per cent speed. I will have to practise normal cricket for a while and see how my hand reacts to that load.

Sixteen years of international cricket and Tendulkar cannot be same as he was in 1989?

A: I don't think that's possible. The cricketers' bodies are also like that of normal human beings. We are probably in better shape, but it's to grow and deteriorate at stages and at a certain point one has to realise that his body cannot take it anymore. My body has not remained the same in the last 16 years.

Have all the injuries made you a different batsman?

Certainly, not my injuries, it's just my age, probably because of my maturity. As I said everything changes with time. I think people should be wise enough to accept it. Amitabh Bachchan is playing a different role now. Similar is the case with other sportspersons too. Great players like Vivian Richards, Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border played different roles.

I was aggressive when I started off, with others like Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, playing different roles. Then there were Azhar and Sidhu. Now I have reached that level, with Veeru (Sehwag), Yuvraj playing different roles. It's what the team needs and not about an individual. Eventually when all the things come together, it clicks.

Srinath said recently on TV he asked you how many more years and you said five?

I don't know whether I meant that or said `Don't ask me that question.'

Did you say that?

No, I am just joking. Well, I have never thought like that. I just want to keep playing and be an integral part of the team. The moment I get a feeling that, fine, I cannot be as dedicated, I would not want to hang around there. As long as I play, it will always be 100 per cent from my side. The day I feel I cannot, I will step down. But yes, I was watching the television when Srinath said that.

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