In the early years, especially around the mid 90s, I had this feeling you could play around on his ego and get him out. He believed he could attack bowlers at any time and anyone who could bowl maidens to him stood a good chance. Things are of course different now.

Tendulkar is the best in the world at the moment. Why I've always liked him is that batsmen tend to be negative at times and I think batting is not about not getting out - it is to play positively. I think you got to take it to the bowlers and Sachin is one such player. When you do so, you change the game, you change bowlers because they suddenly start bowling badly because they are under pressure.

I'd like to see him go out one day and bat with a stump. I tell you he'd do OK…. I just get the feeling because of his mental strength that Sachin will be definitely the best player of his era and probably the best 2-3 of all time.

Whenever I see Sachin play I am reminded of the Graeme Pollock quote of Cricket being a 'see the ball, hit the ball game.' He hits the ball as if it's there to be hit.

The moment I saw Tendulkar batting at Karachi I thought he has a long career ahead of him. He was a young bloke, but batted with lots of patience and technically he was very sound. He built his innings very solidly and never gave away his wicket. Bowlers had to work hard to force him make a mistake.

But still I believe Inzamam-ul Haq is a better batsman than Tendulkar. I stood by my words when I last compared Tendulkar with Inzamam in the 1992 World Cup. The only difference between Inzy and Tendulkar is that Tendulkar has lots of temperament in Test cricket, otherwise I think Inzamam plays fast and spin bowlers better than Tendulkar. I agree that Tendulkar has around 30-odd centuries in one-day Internationals but how many one-day internationals India has won in which Tendulkar has scored centuries.

Sachin is an attacker. He has much more power than Sunny. He wants to bet he one to set the pace. He has to be on top. That's the buzz about him.

I think there are some in this world who would find fault even with the best. This guy has scored over 10,000 runs or thereabouts in both forms of cricket but he is still criticised. It just amazes me.

He's a phenomenon We have tried to be switched on when he plays, allow him no boundaries, for then he doesn't stop.

He is like a god in India.