Former Indian coach, Gary Kirsten, who helped the Indian men in blue to lif the ICC World Cup in 2011 revealed that the batting Sachin Tendulkar wanted to retire from international cricket as early as 2007 as he wasn’t enjoying the sport when he took over as head coach.

Point-out that he had a great coaching journey with Tendulkar, Gary said it was about facilitating an environment for the batting great to thrive in the Indian team. Kirsten said Sachin did not feel comfortable batting out of position before he joined the squad as the head coach. Sachin had batted at No. 3 and No. 4 in 2007 before opening the batting again on a permanent basis later that year.

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Tendulkar went on to win the World Cup under Kirsten and played the limited-overs format until 2012. In fact, Sachin scored 19 hundred in the 4-year period under Kirsten.

During talkSPORT podcast The Cricket Collective on Spotify, Kirsten recalled, “I ended up having a great coaching journey with him. If I think of Sachin at the time, where he was when I arrived in India… he wanted to give up the game. According to him he was batting out of position. He wasn’t enjoying his cricket at all. And then he scores 18 international hundreds (19) in three years. Goes back to batting where he wants to bat and we won the World Cup.”

He further added, “For me, all I did was facilitate the environment for him to thrive. I didn’t have to tell him anything… he knew the game. What he did need was an environment… not only him but everyone… an environment where they can be the best versions of themselves.”

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Tendulkar finished his ODI career with 18,426 runs, including 49 hundred and 96 fifties. He scored 15.921, including 51 hundred and 68 fifties in Tests.