Coach John Wright told me I could get hundred 100s: Tendulkar

Mumbai, Mar 26 (PTI) Indian cricketer and batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has revealed that it was India's former coach John Wright who had first inspired him to score 100 international centuries. "I remember a long time ago, in the 2003 World Cup (in South Africa), John Wright had told me, 'You should become the first player to score 100 international hundreds'. We used to have many chats and in one of them he said this. "He (probably) told that just to push me. The coach's job is to give the player that push and probably John was doing the same," Tendulkar said at an interactive media session here Sunday. Tendulkar refused to compare his stupendous feat of scoring 100 international centuries with other milestones in the game like that of Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan's 800 Test wickets for Sri Lanka. "I don't like comparisons. I think getting to 800 wickets is a great thing, absolutely fabulous," he said. Asked whether anyone else can break his record, Tendulkar said he wanted an Indian to do so. "About breaking the record of 100 hundreds, I don’t know. All the records are meant to be broken. If somebody breaks it, then he must be an Indian." When told he had not said anything categorical about his retirement plans, Tendulkar, now 38 and playing cricket at the top level since 1989, retorted, "I have answered. May be you guys have not understood properly. I have always said that when I decide to retire I will let you know. Where is the question of not answering?" PTI