The home fixtures were quickly followed by a tour of South Africa, where India lost the Test series 0-2 and the triangular series involving the hosts and Zimbabwe. However massive the Test losses may have been, it came as no great surprise considering India’s poor overseas record. The third and final Test was there to be won but India were thwarted by the weather.

I happened to interview Tendulkar at the airport on the team’s return and while he didn’t make it sound like an excuse, he did bring up the aspect of adapting to the South African strips. “We played only one game (v Eastern Province at Port Elizabeth) before the Tests on a slow track and next we played on the fastest track at Durban, so there was a big contrast,” he said. It was at Durban where India were bowled out for 66 – the lowest score by an opposing  side in South Africa. The 328-run defeat was followed by a 282-run loss in Cape Town despite scintillating hundreds from the captain and ex-skipper Azharuddin. Then came the frustrating Test at Johannesburg which ended in a draw despite Rahul Dravid scoring 148 and 81.

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At the airport, Tendulkar took each question calmly and the only one which he seemed a touch annoyed with was about whether, on afterthought, he could have been better on the batting and captaincy fronts. He said firmly: “I have been giving my best. I can’t stretch more. Whenever I go in, I give it all.”

Tendulkar faced all sorts of pressures and high expectations were certainly not the least of them. The tour of the West Indies later that year gave Tendulkar one of his most disappointing moments in his career – the defeat in the Barbados Test. Needing 120 for victory, his side collapsed for 81. His book Playing It My Way gives one an idea of the kind of heartbreak it may have been. He also provided an insight into his feelings at the crease facing a 32-3 situation: “I got out for just four. In my anxiety to get a feel for the ball I got a tentative edge. I should either have left the ball alone or tried to counter-attack. The defeat left me totally devastated. I shut myself in my room for two whole days trying to come to terms with the loss.”

Tendulkar’s captaincy years coincided with Sri Lanka’s dominance on the one-day scene and they frustrated India in Test cricket too. But the World Cup defending champions were not even part of the Champions Trophy held in Sharjah towards the end of the 1997 when India lost their games against England, Pakistan and West Indies. Tendulkar’s loss of words on arrival was understandable. “Nothing much to say,” the 23-year-old India captain uttered even before we turned on our dictaphones.

By 1999, he was captain again and his first challenge came in the form of old ODI foes Sri Lanka under new captain Sanath Jayasuriya and Steve Waugh’s Australia in the Aiwa Cup triangular in Sri Lanka. 

Tendulkar woke up with a stiff back on the morning of August 28 and couldn’t play the game against Australia at Colombo. He returned for the next game against Sri Lanka, scored one of his most uneasy centuries in pain and saw his side win. But India’s net run-rate was not good enough to qualify for the final against Australia. Even the touring journalists couldn’t help feel sorry for him. “I was feeling a bit stiff [before deciding to play the Sri Lanka game] but there are times when you just got to push yourself. This was a do-or-die situation and it does not matter even if I break down. The aim was to take India to the final. I tried my best,” he told us.

The tour of Australia was another frustrating experience for captain Tendulkar. And like in Sri Lanka, the Indians did not qualify for the triangular series final, held after the Test series which Waugh’s Australians won 3-0. Tendulkar was gutted to see India give away the advantage to Pakistan at the Gabba where Wasim Akram’s men won off the last ball.

In Hobart, against arch-rivals Pakistan, Tendulkar batted attractively for his 93. After opening partner Ganguly departed for 43, the next highest scorer was Mr Extras with 22. Tendulkar came to the press conference at the Bellerive Oval without coach Kapil Dev, who normally accompanied the captain. “The bowling was disappointing,” he said, while a jubilant Akram felt sorry for his rival skipper: “They depend too much on Sachin. I feel sorry for him. The poor chap has to take all that pressure.”

Indeed, Tendulkar absorbed pressure over an extended period of time like no other cricketer. He must be saluted for that.

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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