Gundappa Vishwanath

One of India's most elegant batsmen ever pays pays tribute to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Friday, October 17, 2008

Gundappa Vishwanath Interview - 'I always knew he was destined for greatness'

One of India's greatest-ever batsmen - Gundappa Vishwanath - confesses that he knew Sachin Tendulkar was destined for greatness the minute he saw the Mumbai batsman in the late 1980s. Vishwanath pays tribute to the champion cricketer for surpassing Brian Lara as the greatest run-scorer in Test cricket. Here are the excerpts:-

Did you expect this when you saw him as a youngster?

I knew when he was at a very early age that he was destined for greatness. I expected him to play for the country when I saw him in a couple of net sessions before he travelled to Pakistan for his debut series.

Now that he has created this monumental effort. I never expected this at that time. The manner in which he has carried himself onwards since his first Test is phenomenal. He started off against Wasim, Waqar, Qadir and co. with such a band and that probably gave him confidence and ‘opened him up to the world’.

When I saw him attack those quality players I knew that he was going to be a quality player someday. He is the greatest player that I have ever seen.

To be very honest, I expected him to reach the record a couple of Tests before but such things happen in cricket. The way he has played all these years I feel he still has a lot of cricket left in him.

I am very, very proud of him and I hope the whole of India is today. It is a monumental effort.

I get the feeling that now that he has got the record, he will score plenty more runs and ensure that he stays on top of the table for a long time to come. I admire him for the fact that he is still so hungry as a batsman even after achieving so much.

Destined to get these runs against Australia?

He wanted to get these runs in Sri Lanka itself but nobody would bypass Test matches against some other team in order to get the record against a particular team. He wasn’t thinking in that manner. He would’ve taken this against Sri Lanka itself but I am sure getting it against Australia must be special.

Time to retire?

I am not sure. I am not the person to think about that. It is an individual thing. I feel he’s got a lot of cricket left in him. He is the best judge. Personally I give him some more years. There are no flaws in his game. He is still batting like a gem.