Sachin Tendulkar will play his 170th Test at Mohali on Friday, 01 Oct 2010 but even after over 20 years in international cricket the senior India batsman says he never takes anything for granted and his success is a reflection of his constant hard work.“There are ups and downs when you complete a circle of life, its not always about being on the top and in life there are ups and downs but it’s important to complete that circle and that’s what has happened in my career,” Sachin said.
Tendulkar said there are no short cuts to success.
“I don’t want to take anything for granted. I have worked hard over the years to be part of the Indian team. The key thing is to continue to work hard and try and get better each day of the life and make sure that you enjoy every moment and that’s what I try to do,” he said.
Asked how old was he when he started playing cricket, Tendulkar said, “I don’t want to talk about that, but as long as I am enjoying, it’s wonderful to be here (I will continue to play).”
Asked about the five-Test match series that used to be played earlier, Tendulkar said, “I think given the current schedule, it’s going to be difficult to accommodate that… it will take a mega effort to organise it (such a series).”
“It requires a different temperament altogether. Sometimes you start the series brilliantly, but don’t end up that well. Sometimes, you start badly, but end up becoming man of the series. It’s a great learning curve,” he said.
Tendulkar holds most batting records under his belt and is on the verge of reaching 14,000 runs in Test cricket. Closely following him is Australian skipper Ricky Ponting with 12,026 runs but Tendulkar said he doesn’t want to talk about records.
“I don’t like to talk about records, let others talk about it. I will keep scoring runs.”