'My focus wasn't on 100th century'

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Sachin Tendulkar revealed the agony of the last 12 months, during which he went without an international century, before finally getting the three-figure mark in the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh, to complete the magical landmark of 100 international centuries.

The master batsman, who spoke to reporters in Mumbai, on Sunday, about his unique achievement, revealed how the pressure of getting to 100 hundreds finally got to him and what he told god after completing the feat.

- Coverage: Sachin Tendulkar's ton of tons

It was Tendulkar's 23rd year in international cricket and he became the only cricketer in the history of the game to achieve the record of scoring 100 centuries. But the journey from 99 centuries to 100 was not easy, as not only Tendulkar fell short of the three-figure mark time and again, but Team India also fared poorly in Test cricket and was whitewashed 4-0 in their Test series in England and Australia.

Yet, Tendulkar is not ready to call it a day; he feels he will continue to play for India till he can contribute and stays motivated. He reiterated that only he will make the decision to retire from the game, once he decides on it.

Excerpts from the interaction:

What do personal records mean in a team game?

When you contribute towards the team, trying to achieve the team's cause, that is when the records are created. No one first looks to create records and then looks to achieve the team's cause. Before any game, the team has a goal, and while chasing that goal if certain records are set, it becomes a landmark and big news; but in our team meetings we never discuss records. We discuss how to win the match and what's the best way to do it. Along the way, if somebody is able to break records and do something special, then we always feel good about it.

This is your 23rd year in international cricket. What has the last year taught you that your first 22 years didn't teach you?

To stay patient on 99 hundreds. Yes, this year was a difficult one. When I was on 99 hundreds during the World Cup, nobody spoke about it. The focus was on the World Cup. We won the world Cup and then everybody started thinking what is next and started questioning where can we focus.

The focus was on the 100th hundred. My focus wasn't on it. My focus was, as always, to score a big hundred whenever I went out and contribute, and that is what I have done in the past. As the time went by there was so much hype created that naturally the focus, even though I didn't want it, I felt it was somewhere there in the subconscious. Though I kept telling myself that, above all, I just need to enjoy playing cricket and be myself. But when you get at least 100 reminders daily it becomes difficult not to think about it. You are forcibly made to think about it.

That was getting tougher and tougher as days wore on. I felt like telling everyone, let's just talk cricket and not talk about the 100th hundred. I went through the same pre-match preparations, sometimes there are no reasons for failure and disappointment. I felt in Australia I was batting the best I have in the last 22 years. I was really pleased with the way I was moving and timing the ball and the bat-swing. But, somehow, at the crunch moment you need luck to be at your side and I felt luck wasn't on my side on those occasions. I got close to scoring hundreds, but when the time came, things just didn't happen. Sometimes things happen in your life which you can't explain.

You look at solutions and put question marks and ask why is this happening, but you just don't find answers. Then eventually you look at scernarios when you haven't batted well and still ended up scoring big runs. What could be the reason? Luck. Sometimes you just get beaten by that much. How do you describe that? It has to be luck.

In Mumbai, had I been beaten by Ravi Rampul, instead of edging it to [Darren] Sammy at slip, I would have still been batting on 94. The next ball if it's a two-paced pitch, I would leave alone. Sometimes, it's important to get that wake-up call.

Last season, that wake-up call didn't happen much and it just taught me to have patience and focus on my job and the results will take care of themselves. I just focused on my pre-match preparation and not think too much. When you start a building, you don't think of the tenth floor. You start at the ground floor first. My preparations weren't affected. I didn't use any shortcuts, so that again was a reminder that I had not relaxed. In fact, if anything, I just kept pushing harder and harder.

Sometimes there are disappointments and I always use disappointments and setbacks to work harder and try and take whatever positive out of that. That is something that I have learnt, and, may be, it was a reminder after 22 years.