Madal Lal reveals what made it difficult for Sachin Tendulkar to take care of Team India as captain
Sachin Tendulkar is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers to ever play the game. The Master Blaster has itched his name in almost every record book with the bat. The batting great is the leading run-scorer in both ODI and Test cricket with 18,426 and 15,921 runs respectively in the two formats. Tendulkar is the only cricketer in the world to slam 100 international centuries, 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs.
Despite being regarded as the best batsman, Tendulkar's captaincy skills were always questioned by many. As a captain, Tendulkar led India in 73 ODIs out of which the Men in Blue only managed to win 23 and lost 43. While in Tests, Tendulkar won only 4 games out of 25 he captained and lost 9.
Former India fast bowler and coach Madan Lal claims Tendulkar took a lot of care of his own performances that made it difficult for him to take care of the team.
“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.
“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.
“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.
Madan further said that Tendulkar had a quality of reading the game and he told players where they were going wrong.
“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.
