When brother Ajit prompted Sachin Tendulkar to carry his bat also to MRF Pace Foundation

When greats of the game meet, there is sure to be talk of their glorious playing days and their personal victories against one another. When Sachin Tendulkar and Glenn McGrath met at the MRF Pace Foundation Academy here on Friday, there was quite a bit of banter about the number of times the leading wicket-taker among fast bowlers in Tests has dismissed the legendary batsman with almost every batting record and also the number of times the Indian has smashed the Aussie to different parts of the ground during their heydays.

At the same time, there is mutual respect each one has for the other, mindful of each other’s achievements in their long career – McGrath’s 14 years for 124 Tests and 563 wickets being as humungous a feat among bowlers as Tendulkar’s 24 years and two days for 200 Tests and 15,921 runs among batsmen.

“If you bowl to batsmen like Sachin and Brian Lara and succeed, then you have done well. Sachin is one of the best, if not the best, batsmen of all time,” McGrath, who has dismissed the Indian maestro six times in the nine Tests that the two have faced each other, said on Tendulkar. “His strength of will was unmatched. His mental strength was incredible. I remember this Test match in Sydney in 2004, which unfortunately I did not play in, where he decided not to play a single cover drive in the whole game. And he scored 241 not out.”

Tendulkar was not far behind. “It was a joy playing with Glenn. To spend a lot of time at the highest level and to be able to face the challenges was amazing. Our battles got interesting, he with the ball and I with the bat. We enjoyed the challenges,” the 42-year-old Tendulkar said of the 1.95m-tall McGrath. “He was extremely focussed, aggressive, disciplined and stuck to his plans.”

But one thing that stood out with the two, though contrasting in heights, had similar work ethics and discipline towards the game that helped them have long careers and also succeed.

“If Sachin played 24 years of international cricket, you have to double the number of years that a fast bowler actually played. So I played for 28 years,” McGrath, director of coaching at the MRF Pace Foundation, said before bursting into laughter.

McGrath, who took over from Australian pace guru Dennis Lillee three years ago at the Pace Foundation, said that the secret to his long international career was his determination and the sacrifices that he had made, something very similar to Tendulkar.

“I was determined and had to sacrifice many things for cricket. The first coaching I have had was at 22 with Lillee. I was a late starter. From that moment, I was very focussed. If I had to succeed at the highest level, I had to do things differently. The work ethics plus sacrifice leads to what you want to achieve. There is no substitute to hard work,” McGrath said.

Nodding in approval, Tendulkar added: “To play for India is not easy. And to stay there for a long time is even tougher. I was able to work for hours and hours in the nets (in school days) and nothing would tire me out. I would still be out there in the nets even after dark trying to figure out where the ball was. I had terrific support from my family, friends and coaches. That formed a formidable force in my career.

“The process of playing matches and scoring runs kept me engaged. I never saw which tournament I was playing in. I was just happy playing matches. Cricket gave me most satisfaction. There have been sessions that I did not like to do but had to do. I felt like going to a movie or having bhelpuri. But I was not allowed to lose my focus. Now, looking at all those things, I was lucky and am thankful for the support system around me. I was not old enough to understand those things then.”

Tendulkar said that Javagal Srinath was the fastest bowler India has produced. He also called Zaheer Khan “best with reverse swing”, Subroto Banerjee “swung the new ball beautifully” and Vivek Razdan “bowled beautifully with bounce”. All the four mentioned have been through MRF Pace Foundation at some stage of the career with Srinath, Banerjee and Razdan among the first products from the Chennai-based facility that has been functional from 1987.

It was as a 14-year-old that Tendulkar went to the Pace Foundation aspiring to be a fast bowler. But Lillee thought otherwise.

In Tendulkar’s own words: “I always loved to bowl quick and (coach) Vasu Paranjape said ‘why not send Sachin to MRF Pace Foundation’. While packing my bags, my brother said that I also carry a bat. After bowling a few balls at the trials, I was standing in the side when Paranjape suggested I pad up and face some of the bowlers. That’s when Dennis Lillee said that batting was a better option for me. What Dennis did not know was that I had already done well as a batsman in school’s cricket. It was the vision that my brother had in me that he said I also carry a bat to the Pace Foundation.”

Praising the efforts of the Pace Foundation for the last 27 years – they boast of the bowlers who have been through the facility to have taken more than 2,200 international wickets besides playing key role in India’s triumphs in 2007 World T20 and 2011 Cricket World Cup – Tendulkar said: “A lot of things happen around fast bowlers and MRF introduced to Indian bowlers those things and said that fast bowling is not just about running in to bowl fast.”

When the minds of Tendulkar and McGrath came together, there was nothing but inspirational talk that the young MRF Pace Foundation trainees, most of whom have already had a taste of first-class cricket and are gearing up for the upcoming first-class season, listened to attentively.

“Sharing my experiences with the youngsters is satisfying. I made them understand what international cricket is all about. Cricket now-a-days is only getting tougher,” said Tendulkar about his 40-minute pep talk to the young pacers.

McGrath added: “We always look from the bowlers’ perspective. We wanted them to look from the batsman’s perspective how they went about things. To have the iconic Indian player sharing his experiences is a great honour for us.”

Tendulkar’s pep talk will only inspire the youngsters to perform well in the upcoming season and realise their dreams of playing for the country.