Devastated as captain, Tendulkar wanted to quit: Autobiography

The 41-year-old cricketer has finally opened up about the dark days he survived in a career which spanned over two decades

Devastated and scarred, skipper Sachin Tendulkar wanted to quit cricket altogether after being disgusted with his team's performance in the West Indies in 1997, the batting maestro reveals in his autobiography.

The 41-year-old former batsman, who claimed almost every record that is there to be taken in international cricket before calling it quits last year, has finally opened up about the dark days he survived in a career which spanned over two decades.

The autobiography Playing it My Way, to be released worldwide on November 6, also talks about the controversy during the Indian team's tour of South Africa in 2001 when he was accused of being involved in ball tampering by the match referee Mike Denness.

He writes that he was prepared to abandon the tour because he had been called a cheat.

Tendulkar says that all he did was to use his thumb to clean off the dirt that was stuck on the ball's seam. He insists that he never tampered with the ball.

The incident happened during the second Test match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth. The Indians were infuriated and threatened to boycott the third Test if Denness was not removed.

Tendulkar's long-time teammate and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said in a reaction to Tendulkar's revelations that there was no question of Tendulkar tampering with the ball. The ball was new and there was no question of tampering with the new ball, he said.

Ganguly said he looks forward to reading Tendulkar's book, particularly about what the master batsman would have written about the era of former India coach Greg Chappell.

In his autobiography, the much-admired but reticent batting legend has dwelled on the frustrations he faced during his reign as captain -- a phase which is considered the biggest debacle of his otherwise enduring love affair with cricket.

"I hated losing and as captain of the team I felt responsible for the string of miserable performances. More worryingly, I did not know how I could turn it around, as I was already trying my absolute best," recalls Tendulkar in the book, the first exclusive excerpts of which are with PTI.