India watches with bated breath when Sachin Tendulkar comes out to bat but one man prefers to go on a long drive just to avoid seeing him And that man happens to be the maestro's own elder brother Ajit with whom he discusses every aspect of the game.
"He does not watch my matches. I have been told by friends that he goes on a long drive alone, where there is no radio, there is nothing, and he comes back only after the match is over," Tendulkar revealed.
"Later, a recording is pulled out and then he and I discuss where improvements can be made in my batting and what mistakes I committed. All this discussion happens then," he said.
"Because I speak to him every evening and on a daily basis we discuss what sort of preparation should be made for a match and what are the mistakes to be avoided, and this is a habit I have since school cricket and I still use this formula," he added.
The veteran right-hander, who completed 20 years in international cricket a few weeks ago, also thanked his wife Anjali for supporting him at the expense of her own medical career.
"I think my problem is that I am not expressive on the face. But she knows my style, what I want to say, what I am feeling, what I am thinking, she knows and she understands," Tendulkar said.
Tendulkar said he misses his late father immensely as he was a guiding force for him in every aspect of life.
"I will always miss my father. I don't think anything in the world can replace him. I feel his absence acutely, especially during good and bad times in my life. My father always guided me and was a source of strength to me.
Asked to compare former captain Sourav Ganguly with incumbent Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Tendulkar said the two have distinct ways of showing aggression with the former being a lot more expressive in his body language.
"I think I don't like making comparisons. Every individual has his own identity. Every individual has an imagination. Both have different personalities. Dhoni is very calm and composed on the field but Sourav had a different body language from Dhoni," he said.
"I think they are both aggressive but their style is different. They react differently to situations. So I don't like to compare. I have never compared people," he added.
Recalling his days of playing under Ganguly, Tendulkar said the Bengal batsman was spot on with most of the decisions he took during his tenure but maintained that a captain is only as good as the team.
"I think a captain is successful when his team performs well. If a team gets out after 150-200 runs, even a good captain can't do anything. But when it comes to decision making I would say that Sourav took very good decisions," he said.
The results after his decisions were also good. So I think he has done a brilliant job for us. A time came in Indian cricket around the year 2001, when we started winning consistently outside India. It started a trend which was very good for Indian cricket and Sourav had played a big role in that," Tendulkar said.
Though he refused to divulge any of the dressing room banter, the 36-year-old said the younger lot keep the atmosphere light with their pranks, which are at times targetted at him.
"A newcomer may think twice because he may not know me well, but along with Yuvraj (Singh) and Harbhajan Singh they all join in the fun. It's not as if only one or two players make fun of others, all players poke fun at each other," he revealed.
Asked how he felt at being referred to as 'grandfather' by Yuvraj Singh during a press conference, Tendulkar said even he has a few nicknames for the left-hander.
"I have many names for him too, which I cannot reveal in front of the TV camera. I warned him to think twice before calling me grandpa because I have many names to call him in front of the camera. But I am not revealing them now as I am giving him a chance after my warning," he said. PTI
