Quotes By Sachin Tendulkar

Lara's done very well recently and I never had any doubts about the abilities of Lara or Waugh.

Beating Pakistan is always special because they are a tough team and we have a bit if a history regarding Pakistan.

It has been very good here, but the World Cup game was different. It had a different significance to it.

Before coming here I had a minor back problem and I thought whenever I play Pakistan I get a back problem.

I feel it's the conscious mind that messes things up. The conscious mind is constantly telling you, this might happen or that might happen, even before it has happened. Your conscious mind tells you the next ball might be a out-swinger, but when it's coming at you you realize it's an in-swinger... so literally, you've played two balls.

I have never thought where I will go, or forced any targets on myself.

I feel when somebody has been playing cricket for a long time, he creates a separate identity for himself.

If efforts to do social work are couched in selfish motives, then they will die a premature death. Why would my efforts get politicised? I have values I inherited from my father. He helped many. Anyone, even a postman knocking on our door would get a glass of water and some sweets.

Shoaib Akhtar has been playing for 5, 6 years and is an experienced bowler.

I'm really focusing now on how I can get to the next level as a batsman. How can I get even more competitive? How can I get even more consistent? How can I get better?

As a kid I loved John McEnroe. They called me Mac because, while everyone else liked Borg, I was crazy about McEnroe. I tried wearing headbands and sweatbands, and whooping at people. It didn't quite work.

I just keep it simple. Watch the ball and play it on merit.

The Australian tour was good for us; it was ideal preparation for us.

At least with me, the match starts much, much earlier than the actual match.

I get 0.5 seconds to react to a ball, sometimes even less than that. I can't be thinking of what XYZ has said about me. I need to surrender myself to my natural instincts. My subconscious mind knows exactly what to do. It is trained to react. At home, my family doesn't discuss media coverage.

If one man is representing India in cricket, then yes, blame that person when things go wrong.

I never played with a runner in my entire life, even in schools, because only I know where the ball is going and how hard, when I hit the ball, something my runner will never know about.

Any active sportsman has to be very focused; you've got to be in the right frame of mind. If your energy is diverted in various directions, you do not achieve the results. I need to know when to switch on and switch off: and the rest of the things happen around that. Cricket is in the foreground, the rest is in the background.

From the spinners, Anil and I have been together for a long time and I respect him a lot.

Wasim and Waqar were amazing bowlers. I would put them right up there with the best in the world.

When there is time to think about cricket, I think but when there is time to be with family, I try to do justice to that aspect of my life as well.

It doesn't always happen according to the way you have planned things out but I feel if you have covered most of the aspects, it does help out there in the middle.

Before you lay a foundation on the cricket field, there should be a solid foundation in your heart and you start building on that. After that as you start playing more and more matches, you learn how to score runs and how to take wickets.

At the start of my career, when I used to toss and turn at night, I was fighting that feeling and wanting to go to sleep. Now I know that's normal, so I'll just get up and watch TV or something. I know it's just my subconscious mind getting ready for a game.

Every individual has his own style, his own way of presenting himself on and off the field.

I have never tried to compare myself to anyone else.

Obviously after such a long gap, one itches to get back to the game and score big runs.

I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it's a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there.

New Zealand's Daniel Vettori is a very good bowler.

I just want to continue the way I am going.