Here's to Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar is the complete batsman. Neither fast bowlers nor mystery spinners nor hard pitches nor damp decks nor dust bowls nor heat nor cold nor dusk nor dawn nor razzmatazz have found him wanting. Ten thousand questions have been asked and all have been answered, most of them in the affirmative, writes Peter Roebuck, in one of several articles on Tendulkar in the India Today.

Srinath offers a team-mate's viewpoint of Tendulkar the batsman and the captain.

After a run of very successful seasons in international cricket, he was put in charge of the team. It was obvious to us that the crown of captaincy did not fit him perfectly. Under Sachin's leadership for the first time in 1996, many of us found it difficult to match his expectations. His demands and anticipation of his teammates' performances originated from his own talent. Lesser mortals found the going tough even to understand their roles, never mind the whole business of taking on the pressure of international cricket.

Everytime he was in charge, a curious pattern of a slump in form followed. To others it may not have been a slump, but by his standards it was. Sachin took some time to realise that it's not practical to expect others to emulate his feats. Basically, his talent was inborn and those skills cannot be acquired or transferred to anyone. The loss of any game under him his captaincy worked him up so much that it preyed on his batting abilities.

John Wright: "If around 1990, I'd been asked how long this 16-year-old Indian touring New Zealand would survive in international cricket, I wouldn't have come close. No matter how good the kid looked, you didn't think in terms of a 20 years."