Tendulkar: the heroes' hero

Sachin Tendulkar attracts attention wherever he goes and in the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock analyses just what it is about Tendulkar that makes him so fascinating.

Former India coach John Wright says newcomers to the Indian dressing room take two or three games to feel comfortable "because they spend the first few games watching Sachin and learning how to interact with him as a teammate". No group of Australian cricketers admired Tendulkar more than the luckless bunch who saw him peel off 446 runs in three Tests against them on the subcontinent in 1998. They became so infatuated by him that most even bought copies of his famously heavy Vampire bat and brought them back to Australia so they could test them and give a copy to their own batmakers just to see whether they were, in fact, cricket's version of a magic wand.

Another great of the game, Shane Warne, called his former coach John Buchanan "a goose" during the week. But according to Malcolm Conn in the Weekend Australian Warne might end up coaching alongside Buchanan if Cricket Australia confirms it has got its man.

In the Daily Telegraph Nik Walshaw looks back on some famous Boxing Day moments, while Greg Baum chats to the former Australian batsman Colin McDonald in the Age.

Phil Wilkins in the Sydney Morning Herald remembers what it used to be like when touring teams had more than a week in the country before their first Test. In the same paper Peter Roebuck looks at how important Sourav Ganguly is to India.