Batting icon Sachin Tendulkar highlighted his immense passion for the game as a kid that helped him reach the highest level, while speaking at the Indian Street Premier League-3 (ISPL) player auction on Tuesday. 

“I started playing cricket because I was passionate. I was madly in love with it and all I wanted to do was play for India. I was prepared to do whatever I had to for that. At various stages in my life, I was prepared to work hard, possibly be on the field for 12 hours. There was a period where I did that for 55 days in a row in my summer holidays and finally fell sick. But that’s what it is, if the passion and the fire is not there, you are not going to be able to move forward,” Tendulkar, an ISPL core committee member, said.