‘Didn’t have freedom to pick my team’: Sachin Tendulkar shares his experience of captaining Indian Test team in 90s originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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Sachin Tendulkar says he lacked the freedom to pick his team as India captain.
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He led India in 25 Tests and 73 ODIs, winning four and 23, respectively.
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Tendulkar also praised Temba Bavuma for ending South Africa’s 27-year wait for an ICC title.
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‘Couldn’t pick my own players’: Sachin Tendulkar lifts the lid on captaining India in the tumultuous 90s
Sachin Tendulkar has revealed that he did not have the freedom to pick his own team while captaining India in the 1990s.
The batting great, widely regarded as one of the finest players the game has produced, also said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is a far more professional body today than it was in that era.
The ‘Master Blaster’ went on to refer to the match-fixing scandal that shook Indian cricket as his captaincy drew to a close, and he described that stretch as a dark phase for the national side. His comments came in reply to a fan’s question during an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit.
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Asked about his leadership years on Reddit, he began by saying it was an honour to lead the country, but then spoke about how little say he had in squad selection and how much the board has changed since.
“It was a great honour to lead the team as captain. However, I didn’t always have the freedom to pick my team entirely on my own. The BCCI today is a far more professional organisation than it was in the 1990s. Indian cricket also went through a particularly dark phase during that period,” said Sachin.
When he was asked to name his favourite captains, he picked two men who followed him in the role and who were each central to a long run of success for India, Ganguly and Dhoni.
“As far as my favourite captains go, Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni would definitely be at the top of my list!” he said.
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Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy record: Tests, ODIs and win percentage
Tendulkar’s two spells as captain were short and difficult. In his first stint, he led India in 17 Tests and 54 ODIs, and in his second he led them in eight Tests and 19 ODIs.
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Metric |
1st stint (1996-1997) |
2nd stint (1999-2000) |
Overall as captain |
|
Tests (W-L-D) |
17 (3 wins, 4 losses, 10 draws) |
8 (1 win, 5 losses, 2 draws) |
25 (4 wins, 9 losses, 12 draws) |
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ODIs (W-L-NR/T) |
54 (17 wins, 31 losses, 6 NR/T) |
19 (6 wins, 12 losses, 1 NR) |
73 (23 wins, 43 losses, 1 tied, 6 NR/T) |
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Win % (Tests / ODIs) |
17.64% / 31.48% |
12.50% / 31.57% |
16.00% / 31.94% |
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Appointed by |
Selection committee led by Gundappa Viswanath |
Selection committee led by Chandu Borde |
– |
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Successor |
Mohammad Azharuddin (early 1998) |
Sourav Ganguly (early 2000) |
– |
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Why Sachin Tendulkar could not pick his team: Selection committees and zonal quotas in the 1990s
The root of Tendulkar’s complaint lay in the way Indian squads were chosen at the time. Captains did not hold voting rights in selection committee meetings and sat in only as non-voting attendees, which meant that the man responsible for results had no formal say in the team he was handed.
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Squads were also shaped largely by zonal selectors, who worked with regional quotas, and that often led to decisions where the captain’s tactical preferences and his choice of backups were overruled.
MORE: ‘It’s too early’: Sachin cautions against giving Sooryavanshi key role
One of the most painful moments of the first spell came in March 1997. India were bowled out for 81 while chasing only 120 against the West Indies at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, and Tendulkar has often pointed to the match as one that left him deeply frustrated about the make-up and resolve of the team.
The first stint ended abruptly, with Azharuddin returning as captain and leading the side until the 1999 World Cup. After India’s disappointing showing at that tournament, Tendulkar was handed the job again, but he stepped down a year later.
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Tendulkar gave up the role voluntarily after India lost 3-0 in Australia in 1999-00 and then 2-0 at home to South Africa in a Test series in February and March 2000. He refused to carry on even though the board tried to persuade him to stay.
Ganguly succeeded him, and the appointment marked the start of a golden era for Indian cricket. It also signalled a shift towards giving captains greater authority over the selection of their squads.
MORE: ‘Nee po mone Dinesha’: Sachin drops Mohanlal’s iconic dialogue for Sanju Samson
What did Sachin Tendulkar say about South Africa captain Temba Bavuma?
Tendulkar also used the Reddit session to praise Bavuma, who led South Africa to their first ICC title in 27 years by beating Australia in the 2023-2025 World Test Championship final at Lord’s. The former India captain said he admired the South African leader’s spirit and spoke about what the achievement meant for the sport.
“I truly admire Temba Bavuma’s spirit. He has led from the front and delivered some remarkable results for South African cricket. South Africa winning an ICC title is great for world cricket!”
South Africa followed that triumph by beating Australia 2-1 at home, which showed that the title was no one-off and underlined their strength in Test cricket. Bavuma led from the front in that series with a career-best 179 in the second Test at Gqeberha, and he credited Tendulkar’s technique for influencing his compact movement at the crease.
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How India’s flawed selection system let down its captain in Tendulkar’s era
Tendulkar’s remarks are a reminder that India’s selection system in the 1990s asked a captain to deliver results without giving him the tools to build the side.
A leader who sat in the room as a non-voting attendee, while zonal selectors pushed names according to regional quotas, was always going to struggle to shape a balanced eleven, and the Bridgetown collapse of 1997 showed what could follow when composition and temperament did not fit the task.
The deeper problem was accountability. Selectors chose the squad, yet the captain answered for every defeat, and his record of four Test wins in 25 matches was judged without much thought for the fact that he rarely had his preferred backups. A system in which responsibility and authority sit with different people tends to produce muddled outcomes, and that is what Indian cricket often got in that decade.
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Regional quotas also meant that the best available player was not always the one who played. Merit became one factor among several, and the captain was left to make the best of whatever he was given. That is a hard standard to meet in any era, and the later move to give captains a real say over squads is the clearest sign the old way was flawed.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
