Legendary Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar opened up on the toughest phase that he endured as an international cricketer on the fourth episode of India Today Inspiration on Saturday. He went on to reveal that phase before and during the 2007 World Cup was the lowest point in his illustrious career which lastest for almost 24 years but the team managed to pull things through immediately after their shocking exit from the 50-over showpiece event.
It was also the time when Greg Chappell was the head coach of Team India and he tried to bring in too many changes in the lead up to the World Cup which probably was one of the main reasons behind their horrendous performance in the tournament.
During the show, Sachin said, “2007 was the lowest point of my career. I didn’t enjoy that phase in Indian cricket at all because we were not going in a good direction and I just felt that there was something drastically wrong with Indian cricket.”
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He further added, “The thought process was wrong and what we were wanting to achieve was not a common goal. There were individuals thinking in the team and I didn’t fell the atmosphere was healthy in the dressing room and it needed to change.”
Chappell’s contract ended after the World Cup and soon after that, the men in blue got back to the winning ways. That happened after the number of changes the BCCI made in the team management by bringing in the likes of Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput and Ravi Shastri in the backroom staff in different capacities.
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Recalling that phase Tendulkar said, “That changed in 2007 itself. You look at post-World Cup, the sudden transformation, the overnight transformation. You could see the body language on the field, the energy on the field, you could see that cohesiveness which was the element we missed. From there on Venkatesh Prasad was there, Robin Singh was there, if I’m not mistaken, (Chandu) Borde Sir was there, Lalchand Rajput, all these guys came together. And then Gary (Kirsten) and Paddy (Upton) joined and things just changed from there.”
