TENDULKAR THE ENDURING MASTER

His slump in 2005-06 might have had something to do with injuries. I remember him ringing me up about tennis elbow in that period because he was struggling with that. That might have been wearing him down. Or he might have been just completely drained - it must be hard being Sachin Tendulkar. But he's evolving in mind – you keep giving yourself reasons to carry on. That's been the thing – the hunger and the dedication to the game. He could easily walk away from the game, he's a very wealthy man, but I don't think he does it for the money. He does it probably because he loves it so much, he doesn't want to do anything else and he's a bit worried about life after cricket.

Mentally he keeps having to challenge himself, whether it be through statistics or winning World Cups in Mumbai, or beating England or staying No1 in the world, or all of the above, so I think mentally he keeps challenging himself. He's a very hard worker technically anyway – he hasn't changed that much over the years. Occasionally he's gone into machine mode and at times he's gone back to the youth of being a bit more free-scoring and he's done that in the last couple of years. This is a lad who started against the Wasim Akrams and Waqar Younises and the Donalds and the McGraths, he's faced all the quick bowlers. On his first tour of Australia he got runs as a 16-17 year old. He can play the short ball, he can play the bouncy ball. It's just up to him if he wants to take it on.

He's a massive threat to England. He's arguably the best batsman of my generation and one of the best of all time. He's got 99 international hundreds, and he's been playing in the last few years the best cricket of his life. He understands English conditions, he's got runs over here before. He's mentally strong, he's technically strong, he has very few weaknesses and he's still hungry for more runs, he's not someone who's looking to end his career.

I don't think it [99 hundreds, 2000th Test etc] is in his mind. It's driven by India, driven by statistics by the love of  Sachin. All Sachin wants to do is bat. He's at his happiest when he's got a bat in his hands. But obviously he's only human – if he's on 99 hundreds and he's batting at Lord's in the 2,000th Test, it's a fairytale story. So he's only human, it will be on his mind at some stage, he'll want to get it out of the way, get it done and dusted so that he can carry on with his career.

Sachin - "I believe every era has its significance and the same holds true for players and coaches."