MUMBAI: Recently-retired Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar on Friday said he was not too comfortable with the idea of having a computer in the dressing room but came to accept the device after realizing how important an aid it was to plan and strategize better.
“I had already played for India for 12-13 years. This was in 2002-03, when computer was brought to our dressing room. We were told that computer is going to store all the data and you will have access to whatever you want to see. I asked what is the computer doing in the dressing room?” he recollected.
“Computer is not going to bat for me, it is not going to bowl for Zaheer Khan or Harbhajan (Singh). But over a period of time I realised that the data stored was accessible within seconds. If I wanted to see how I batted in Australia in 1999, in year 2007, it was available in five seconds.
“If I wanted to see all the straight drives, if I wanted to see all the balls I had left outside the off-stump, it was available. Then I accepted it,” he added.
Tendulkar said adapting to the new technology helped him prepare better.
“Things have become different. It has helped us plan better against the opposition, whatever their weaknesses or strengths are, it has helped us. It is just about exposure and with time you learn to accept all these things. It has become a way of life for us,” he said.
The batting icon interacted with children and encouraged them to follow their dreams and work towards realizing them.
“It is really important to have a big plan in life. I wouldn’t say that when I was 10 or 11, I knew exactly what was going to happen for the next 20-25 years. But I did have a plan,” he said.
He added that the level of satisfaction he got from playing cricket cannot be compared with anything else. “Just be true to yourself. Don’t try and fool around. It is important that you take life seriously. Yes, you need to enjoy. I played cricket for so many years, I had lot of fun. I enjoyed doing what I wanted to do in life. It gave me the kind of satisfaction which cannot be compared with anything else,” he said. (PTI)