?Captaincy had started affecting me as a person?

In the concluding part of this interview, Sachin Tendulkar shares more private moments with Pradeep Magazine. He admits that to a certain extent he is also a very private, reserved person. He is happy in just mingling with his close friends. Tendulkar is not someone who would want to go around to make more friends and he is happy with the people he know. His family has played a huge role in this, especially father, mother, uncle and aunt.

In the concluding part of this interview, Sachin Tendulkar shares more private moments with Pradeep Magazine.

What gives you the poise and balance that has let you remain level-headed and handle fame and stardom without changing yourself as a person? Do you really realise what you mean to the outside world?
It’s all about my family... looking at my father. My father was someone who wasn’t tempted by anything. He was a very simple, hardworking person. Ethics and the right principles meant everything to him.

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There must be something that influenced you from childhood, say your father. I remember you saying once that ‘despite not being very well off, my father never compromised and that has left a huge impression on me’?
Yes. I mean it wasn’t like, if we thought of buying a cricket bat, we could buy it. We had to think hard first, not me but my parents. So it started off from there. Every little thing contributed.

People still change.
To a certain extent, I am also a very private, reserved person. I am happy in just mingling with my close friends. I am not someone who would want to go around to make more friends and I am happy with the people I know. My family has played a huge role in this, especially my father, mother, uncle, aunt.

They didn’t change towards you?
Absolutely not. I mean we still fool around.

Is it difficult to be in touch with a world that, in a way, is unreal, one where you’re treated like a god?
It is difficult. I mean it is difficult to, you know, to make more and more friends whom you don’t exactly know.

In the post-injury period, you played two tremendous knocks. The style of play was the old attacking one.
I played like that because it was a different situation. A different surface and different strategy from the opposition. In the third game though, I got out early.

You were taking more risks than you normally take these days. Like stepping out and lofting even the fast bowlers. You used to do it earlier but why did you stop? You’re a thinking player and give a lot of thought to your batting.
Yes, I had sometime ago. But I have played those shots. Obviously during my injury I wasn’t sure.

If you see, before my injury we went to Australia and Pakistan. In the one-dayers there I have played those shots. During the hundred I made at Hyderabad (in Sind), I stepped out and played over covers. But in between, things were probably influenced by the injury.

I could play certain shots and there were certain shots I could not play because there was not enough power in my hand. The elbow plays a big, big role. Keeping your grip firm on the handle was tough. When I came back, it was much better. The feel was much better.

The team is different now. New coach, new captain, lots of experimentation. You have been given a new role of being the mentor to the team. What does all this mean to you?
Well, the coach has basically told me to share my experience in whatever way with the players. Work with them, which I have always done, whether I was the senior-most player or the junior-most in the team. If I felt something or observed something, I used to walk to that player and tell him --- this is what I feel. There have been occasions, right from Ravi Shastri to Sidhu, where I have let them know if I felt something was wrong.

Like…
Like, if I felt their head positioning was not right or the stance. I mean, basically, it was just sharing your thoughts with each other and that can only help. I have done this role all the time and find that good. If you are discussing cricket, it is good. I have always done this and not in just the last two-and-a-half months. I have always spoken to them if I felt something was not right.

What role do you see for yourself now? You are the most outstanding cricketer and most respected player of our times. Do you see a bigger role for yourself outside the cricket field?
I don’t want to complicate things by seeing a role for myself.

But how would you like to see yourself?
I think whatever I have done so far has been in the interest of the team. I have never thought anything else. If I could continue to do so, I don’t see any problem in that.

Don’t you want to play a larger role, in the sense that if you feel some things are not right in the administration or you feel there are certain things which need to be corrected you would speak your mind?
I don’t…there are, you know, cricketing bodies to look after all these things. I mean, I have not felt like there is something drastically wrong. And, If I feel that way, I will surely think of making a statement.

Somebody asked me a question on whether dressing room talk should be made public. There, I felt it should not go out. It should stay in the dressing room among the team- members and I said so.