Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. That appears to be the predicament Sachin Tendulkar often finds himself when, on rare occasions, he chooses to react to the question whether he would like the Indian team captaincy back. The question popped up here again last week in the wake of incumbent captain Saurav Ganguly's monotonous run of poor scores (thankfully, since rectified with an 85 in the league match against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo). Would he, Tendulkar was asked, like to take over the captaincy rightaway? He was quoted as saying he was not averse to it. The statement made the headlines the following day.
But speaking to The Times of India here subsequently, Tendulkar said he had never said what was attributed to him. "I was asked whether I was keen on leading the side again and I only said I had not really thought about it. After all, I wouldn't have stepped down from the captaincy only to start thinking about regaining so soon," the master blaster said. Even when I stepped down," he remined us, "I said I wasn't ruling it out another captaincy stint at some later stage. I say the same thing now, but that doesn't mean I want to become captain immediately. The problem is, irrespective of what I say, it seems to be open to interpretation. If I had instead told the questioner I was not interested in captaincy, it would have still made the headlines. If I had said I had no comment to make on the subject, people would have said something was cooking." Damned, as we said, if he does ... Tendulkar also dispelled the impression that he finds it difficult to motivate himself when the opposition is, say, Zimbabwe or Bangladesh, and not, say, Australia. "I never really look at the (quality of) the opposition, I look at what I have to do (to get runs, to try to see that India wins," he said.