Sachin’s very, very hungry!

Former coach Anshuman Gaekwad provides an example of Tendulkar's unique hunger. Even after his unbelievable sandstorm ton in Sharjah, the batting maestro was not happy with his strokeplay and wanted to sort out his 'little problem' that very night

Sachin's very, very hungry!

The best of adjectives are turning out to be clichu00e9s when it comes to describing Sachin Tendulkar's innings of 175. And comparisons to other Tendulkar knocks will be unfair too.

Pundits spoke about his 143 in the penultimate match of the 1998 Coca Cola Cup against Australia (in Sharjah) in the same breath of the Thursday special in Hyderabad. But Anshuman Gaekwad, who was India coach at that time, does not believe there was muchsimilarity.

"It would be unfair to compare the 143 at Sharjah to Hyderabad. Remember, Sachin was ten years younger then. He was The Destroyer. After all, everyone ages," Gaekwad said from Baroda.

"I reckon there was 25 per cent of Sharjah. The rest was all about experience gained over the years. He smashed it around in Sharjah, but from what I saw, the Hyderabad knock was more laboured and very smart in terms of stroke-execution.

"I saw him on television on Thursday and said to myself, 'what is this man up to?' He just pushed himself to a level we don't know about."

A break in momentum is never welcome for a batsman and Tendulkar's innings in Sharjah was interrupted by a sandstorm. It is believed that Tendulkar didn't say much when it was time to resume his match-winning task after the storm. He just enquired about the revised target and went out.

Gaekwad remembered the time as if it was yesterday. "By the time we reached our hotel in Dubai from Sharjah, it was midnight. Sachin told me that he wanted to discuss something. I stressed that he had scored a great hundred so where was the need for any discussion, but he insisted we talk.u00a0

He came to my room and said he was a bit unhappy about the elevation aspect in his batting. As he left the room, my admiration for him grew.

"Normally, a centurion would not want to think about the negative points. But Sachin is not a guy who is happy with 99.99 per cent. The next day he got a hundred and we won the tournament." Back to Hyderabad. Rarely does Tendulkar go into the fifth match of a series with scores of 14, 4, 32 and 40. This may have reminded Ricky Ponting of the 2003-04 Test series Down Under.

The Aussies managed to keep the great Indian quiet in the first three Tests (Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne) but they weren't celebrating too much. The Tendulkar factor loomed large when it came to the decider in Sydney and just as the Aussies feared, Tendulkar came up with a big one an unbeaten 241.

Diwali is well and truly over but Dhoni's Indians may well do with some more fireworks.

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