Mumbai: India’s batting maestro, Sachin Tendulkar, when asked if with so many youngsters in the team, he faces problems in adjusting or are they intimidated by him, said that far from being intimidated, the younger players even pull his leg on a lot of occasions.

“Forget about them fearing me, they sometimes even pull my leg. This kind of relationship is important and everyone has a free hand in the dressing room. If I crack jokes at someone they too have a right to crack jokes at me,” Sachin said.

Asked whether he missed his old teammates Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly, he said “Yes, I have played with these players and particularly with those two I have many memories. They gave such a good performance for the country that it is impossible to forget.”

Tendulkar even revealed that he had tried very hard to persuade Kumble against retiring from international cricket. “I had spoken to Anil and told him that you should play a while longer. The phase of injuries will pass and in the good phase you will always be a match winner for India and you are needed for India. But at that time he was coping with many physical problems and he decided he didn’t want to play anymore,” he said.

Dhoni had recently said in an interview that he wants the little master to play for India till the 2015 World Cup. When asked about his views on that, Tendulkar said, “2015 seems a little far off. I have said earlier too that I do not know when I will stop. I will play till I enjoy myself.”

“…I will think about it when the time comes. I don’t think that time has come yet.” Tendulkar told News24 channel. “My entire focus is on the game now but who knows maybe a time comes when I develop another passion apart from cricket. But now is not the time, no need to think about it right now. I think it’s early, it will be early till I feel that I have played the last ball of my life and I have come in and I have fulfilled my dream.”

When quizzed about the raging debate of T20 and one-day cricket spelling doom for the more classic version of the game, Test cricket, Sachin said that it’s a fact that these days the focus is on T20 and one-day internationals which is creating an imbalance in the cricketing calendar. Sachin also said that the ICC needs to make sure that the longest version of the game is preserved and not neglected.

Tendulkar said that the advent and growing popularity of T20 cricket has made it necessary for cricket administrators to balance the schedule properly. “I think to a certain extent the focus is certainly more on T-20 and one-day cricket. T-20 matches being played are not that many in number but one-day matches are quite frequent. We sometimes play almost 45-50 One Day matches in a year, while Test matches are fewer, so there I do feel is an imbalance,” he said.

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