The way Tendulkar conducts himself is incredible: Dr Rudi Webster
"Few have achieved such heights and still been so grounded," Dr Webster said of Tendulkar.
Dr Webster also shared how he helped Greg Chappell overcome his batting woes in 1981-82.
Calcutta (The Telegraph): Be it Sir Vivian Richards or Brian Lara or Greg Norman, Dr Rudi Webster has worked with them all. He even spent a few days with the Indian cricketers, at the initiative of the then coach Greg Chappell, on their 2006 tour of the West Indies.
One of the best-known sports psychologists (he’s not very comfortable being described as one, though), Dr Webster is a one-time quick, who opened the attack for Warwickshire in the 1960s. Now, of course, he has been roped in by the Kolkata Knight Riders as the franchise’s mental skill coach.
Dr Webster, now 72, spoke to The Telegraph at the ITC Sonar on Saturday afternoon. He’s based in Grenada.
The following are excerpts
Q What do you make of Sachin Tendulkar?
A Few have achieved such heights and still been so grounded. The way Sachin conducts himself, as a superstar, is incredible.
In his recently-released book, Fierce Focus, Greg has talked about Sachin being “mentally fragile” in 2006. Well, what’s your take?
Greg worked with Sachin when the pressure was getting to him... Lara went through the same thing, in the late 1990s... Tiger Woods has gone through it too... I don’t know why Sachin was feeling the pressure... Don’t know if it was because of the environment... Look, every top-notch sportsman feels the pressure at some point in his career, which causes him to function way below his normal level of performance. Once the sportsman has had rest and recreation, then he gets back to his best. A study in England, during World War II, revealed that soldiers reached breaking point after three weeks or so of continuous fighting. Armies have learnt a lesson and don’t deploy soldiers for more than three weeks of fighting at one go... They’re pulled out for rest and recreation and, if necessary, redeployed... Instead of mental fragility, I’d used the words mental fatigue...
There are periods when that surfaces... It’s about not being able to handle a certain pressure at a point in time.
Somehow, you never interacted with the Indian cricketers after 2006. Is that a regret?
Absolutely... I wish I’d got to spend more time with the Rahul Dravids... Besides being such fine cricketers, I found them to be such wonderful human beings. Dravid (then the captain) came across as an amazing person... He didn’t have Sachin’s talent, but was so strong mentally. Times without number, Dravid scored in trying circumstances when the others couldn’t. There was a reason why people called him ‘The Wall’.
After getting his 100th International hundred, in Dhaka, Sachin told me that he’d begun to wake up stress-free... Basically, that he’d felt the pressure on every single day for a year. Your reaction?
You’re aware of batsmen getting out in the 90s, of batsmen getting run out on 99... Why? Because they’re looking at the end result, a hundred, instead of being in the present.
Concentration is a funny thing and you are where your concentration is. Physically, you may be at one spot, but elsewhere mentally... That (concentration bit) apart, Sachin had the expectations of 1.2 billion people on his shoulders. The 1.2 billion people were focusing on the figure 100, forgetting that Sachin already had 99 hundreds! The media created its own pressure... In my view, Sachin magnified the pressure four times, while ‘shrinking’ himself. I wasn’t surprised that he’d been struggling to get that 100th hundred.
Why?
Because anybody in a similar situation would have responded in the same way.
If you’d been working with Sachin in the 12-month period that it took him to move from 99 to 100 International hundreds, what would you have advised?
(Smiles) A lot of people may have said ‘forget the hundred’, but the moment you tell somebody to forget something, he’ll remember it more! My advice would have been to cut the challenge into small segments, like slices of cake... Once you do that, things don’t remain magnified, but come down to their normal size... When that happens, you start believing in yourself again.
Are you suggesting that Sachin’s self-belief took a hit?
Yes... Sachin’s only human and, any time you’re under such pressure continuously, your self-belief suffers. The ‘when’, ‘when’, ‘when’ scenario just didn’t help Sachin. Now that the load is off, he’s free again.
Do you expect to see a ‘different’ Sachin now?
Depends entirely on Sachin... Depends on what he wants to achieve...Depends on what his desire is and how badly he wants whatever he seeks... Generally, I do expect him to play freely and to focus better.
What is the next level for a Sachin?
It’s for Sachin to answer that... If you’ve reached the very top or have got what you wanted, then you’ve got to find new things to stimulate you... (Australian golfer) Peter Thomson once said that the greatest motivation is to win it for yourself... There’s joy and a great sense of achievement... After that, the drive goes and one has to look for a fresh challenge. I don’t know what other journey Sachin will take, but his experience (of situations) will come in handy... A genius like Sachin has to find something new to stimulate himself... I know Viv wanted to show the world that he was the best. It used to be the same with Sir Garry (Sobers)... To be the best, you need to perform better than the rest.
Do the Sachins need to be told a lot?
At times, it’s best not to talk cricket with a cricketer.
You helped Greg, unofficially, didn’t you?
It was during the 1981-82 Test series in Australia, when the West Indies were touring... He’d got two first-ball ducks in the first four innings and I just told him that he wasn’t watching the ball closely. After initial moments of disbelief, Greg understood what was wrong and got a 61 in the third and final Test... In the next series, in New Zealand, he produced some of the best innings... After those ducks, he’d actually been wanting to quit.
[From averaging 14.33 against the West Indies, Greg regained form to end with 78.33 in New Zealand.]
The final one... For all his greatness, Greg was found wanting in something very basic...
Indeed, yes... But the moment it was pointed out, Greg was at the nets and watching the ball out of the bowler’s hand. At times, the basics get forgotten.
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