Chandigarh, November 6
Kapil Dev the coach was a personal disappointment to Sachin Tendulkar, who has revealed this in his recently-published autobiography, Playing It My Way. Tendulkar, who was the captain of the Indian team when Kapil Dev was appointed coach, wrote that the great allrounder did not involve himself in discussions on strategy and planning.

A file photo of Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar.

In the chapter detailing India’s disastrous tour of Australia in 1999-2000, Tendulkar wrote: “During my second stint as captain, we had Kapil Dev as our coach. He is one of the finest cricketers to have played for India and one of the best allrounders of all time, and I had great expectations of him in Australia.”

"I have always maintained that the coach's job is an important one, for he is in a position to play a key role in formulating team strategy. Who better than Kapil to come up with options for me during a tough tour of Australia?”

"However, his method of involvement and his thought process was limited to leaving the running of the team to the captain, and hence he did not involve himself in strategic discussions that would help us on the field," Tendulkar wrote.

India lost the Test series 3-0, and won only one One-day International match in the tri-series involving India, Australia and Pakistan.

Tendulkar captained India in 25 Test matches and was quite successful as a batsman, scoring 2054 runs at an average of 51.35; however India won only four Tests with him leading, losing nine.

Tendulkar also wrote that being sacked as captain after a drawn series against Sri Lanka in 1997 was very "embarrassing" and "humiliating". "At the end of the series, I was unceremoniously sacked as skipper. No one from the BCCI managed to call me or inform me of my removal as captain before someone from the media called to say I was no longer captain," Tendulkar wrote.

"I was actually with my friends in Sahitya Sahawas. I felt extremely humiliated to hear this, but the manner in which the whole thing was handled strengthened my resolve to be a better cricketer in the years to come.

"I told myself that the BCCI mandarins might be able to take the captaincy away from me, but no one could do the same as far as my own cricket was concerned," he wrote.

However, he wrote that the "sense of ignominy and the pain were still there"

“Looking back at my own captaincy career, I feel I could have achieved better results during my first stint had there been more cooperation. I never felt totally comfortable with the relationship with the selectors. This was reflected in the teams I was given, which were not always the ones I would have chosen,” he wrote.