Former India coach talks about Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy

Sachin Tendulkar is regarded as one of the best batsmen of all-time. There are only a few names equal or bigger than Tendulkar when you talk about cricket. Whenever he would come out to bat, the loud chants of “Sachin... Sachin!!” would resonate throughout the stadium. His records with the bat reflect on why he is one of the legends of the sport. Sachin has scored 100 international centuries - the only player to do so till date. Tendulkar also has the highest runs in ODIs (18,426) and Tests (15,921) among all the players so far. But despite his tremendous records, Sachin is not regarded as one of the most successful captains of India.

Tendulkar captained India in 73 ODIs between 1996 to 2000, in which India won 23 matches and lost 43. His winning percentage was 35.07 as captain in 50-overs cricket. Sachin also captained India in 25 Tests in that period of time and could only win 4 games and lost 9, with a winning percentage of 16.

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In a recent interview, former India cricketer and coach Madan Lal reflected back on Tendulkar’s reign as captain. “I don’t believe that Sachin was not a good captain. The problem was very simple. He was really involved with his own performance and he took a lot of care of his own performances a lot. So, at times, it became difficult for him to take care of the team,” Lal told Sportskeeda in a Facebook Live interview.

Lal further said that a captain is only as good as his team. “As a captain, you need to take care of your own performance, and also ensure the rest of the team performs to the best of their abilities. Sometimes, the captain is as good as his team. Captain can only give directions.

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“When you perform well and give confidence to the captain, he also gives you chances without any hesitation. He gets involved with you in discussions and makes plans regarding the game,” he said.

Lal further said that Tendulkar had a great understanding of the game. “Sachin had a very good quality of reading the game and telling the players where they were going wrong or how to bowl. He was superb in all these things. But it happens sometimes, that you give so much attention to your game that your difficulties compound. It was not that he was not a good captain,” he further said.