Sachin Tendulkar has hit out at the comments attributed to coach Greg Chappell on the attitude of some of the senior players after India suffered a first round exit from the World Cup, saying "I'm shattered beyond words".
"I've given my heart and my soul for 17 years. No coach had mentioned even in passing that my attitude was not correct. Cricket has been my life for all these years and will always be," Tendulkar was quoted as saying by local daily on Wednesday.
"I am shattered beyond words and I feel helpless. I've never felt so bad in my entire career." he added.
The media has said that Chappell will raise the issue of the attitude of the senior players of the team at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) meeting later this week.
Chappell himself has not publicly spoken on the issue but comments have appeared in the media attributed to "sources close to Chappell".
"Tell me, the world has gone on talking about all this (our defeat and exit) but has anybody spared a thought for us? Did they try to find out what we have been going through?" Tendulkar said in the interview that was the lead story in the paper.
{{/usCountry}}"Tell me, the world has gone on talking about all this (our defeat and exit) but has anybody spared a thought for us? Did they try to find out what we have been going through?" Tendulkar said in the interview that was the lead story in the paper.
{{/usCountry}}India crashed out of the World Cup in the first round after losing two of the three group matches to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
"No matter how many Tests or one-day series you win, nothing else even comes close to a World Cup triumph. The World Cup was our passion, our collective goal, our dream and that has been shattered. And we all are terribly disappointed over it," he said.
"Again, it's not that we are defending ourselves. We do realise that we played badly and, as a team, we take full responsibility for that. But what hurt us most is if the coach has questioned our attitude."
Some of the seniors are, in fact, so upset with the personal attacks that they are hoping to meet BCCI president Sharad Pawar on Thursday to present their side of the story.
The Indian cricket board has already called for a high-powered two-day review meeting starting on Friday to chart out the future course of action for Indian cricket.