BOMBAY, 30 April 2004 — At the batting crease, one may see a vintage Sachin Tendulkar with all of his glorious 15 years of tenure in international cricket, 70 centuries under his belt and undiminished penchant for more. But it is off-field that one is going to see a different personality altogether, more mature, more relaxed and, for once, completely at ease with himself.

In an exclusive interview to Arab News on the eve of his 31st birthday, the master blaster opted to look forward rather than go down memory lane to pick the highlights of his illustrious career that has taken him to the pinnacle of fame as the best batsman in the world.

His ambition to carry on for at least another five to six years, if not more, was explicit as he spoke rather intimately about cricket and other matters.

Sachin carried absolutely no rancor for the shabby manner in which he was treated by stand-in captain Rahul Dravid, who declared the innings with Sachin only six runs away from his double century in the first Test against Pakistan at Multan. In the same match, Virender Sehwag became the first Indian to score a triple-century.

At that time, Tendulkar was quite clearly upset with the decision. The match was over inside four days and this fact made the decision look even more ridiculous.

“Everything is forgotten and forgiven,” he said. I realized later that the decision was in the best interest of the team,” he said. Dravid too regretted his decision. “In hindsight, I felt I should have allowed him to reach the landmark,” was his remark as he sent his birthday greetings to his teammate.

The reason why Tendulkar carries less worry these days when he goes out to bat is that the Indian line up is become much stronger. He need not lay too much store by his own failure any more because there are so many good batsmen who can give the side a big total. The fact that he has teamed up with a dasher like Sehwag as an opener, makes him to deliberately slow down his game and play more for preservation.

Tendulkar is on the threshold of several batting records, the most imminent of which is the one held by his hero Sunil Gavaskar of the highest number of Test centuries. Tendulkar needs only one more to equal Gavaskar’s record of 34. Some years ago, Gavaskar himself had said that if there is anyone who will break that record, it will be Sachin. There are several others in both forms of the game.

But there is one secret desire that Sachin revealed to this writer. He admitted that he is indeed looking forward to captaining the Indian side again. It is for the first time in the last few years, since he lost his captaincy that he has confessed to it. It is his desire to captain India again before ending his career.

It may be recalled that Tendulkar, when he was appointed captain for the first time in 1996, had started brilliantly, winning the Test series at home against Australia and South Africa. He, however, had a disastrous tour of the West Indies and Australia. It was not that his batting was affected, but his record as captain was poor and Mohammed Azharuddin was reappointed captain in 1999. Azhar too fell out of favor and eventually messed up his career by being involved in major match-fixing controversies. Saurav Ganguly then took over and has so far the best record of victories by an Indian captain.

The expression of Tendulkar’s willingness to accept the Indian captaincy, if it was offered to him, came as a bit of a surprise since he had admitted more than once that he would not like to lead the team again. He probably thinks that he is now enjoying a more relaxed phase of his career and that he has matured enough to do a better job. What he did not say was that he now has a much better Indian team to lead than was his lot some eight years ago.

Age is not a bar to his regaining the captaincy, as at 31, he is still a year younger than both Ganguly and Dravid. The reason why captaincy will not come so easily to him is that Ganguly is already doing a great job and when he is not around, Dravid has shown that he is not too behind in leading the side with eclat.

There is no doubt that Tendulkar makes a valuable contribution to the side with his advice and timely tips and is a major part of the team’s think tank. But it is Dravid who goes to him more often than does Ganguly, who savors success and is a drifter when the tide goes against the team. But there is no denying the fact that Ganguly takes some bold decisions as well.

Who knows, before Tendulkar bids good-bye to international cricket, he may still fulfill his ambition of captaining India once again. If that happens, then it will be a great note on which this remarkable cricketer can sign off his stupendous career.