Oz tour set up Sachin's magic show

SACHIN Tendulkar revealed his maiden tour of Australia 16 years ago had played a key role in shaping his brilliant career.

Centuries in Sydney (148 not out) and Perth (114) in that five-Test campaign of 1991-92 gave the man who is now Test cricket's leading run-scorer confidence to prosper in any conditions against any attack.

Tendulkar's coming of age in Australia came less than five months after he notched his maiden Test ton in England -- a match-saving and unbeaten 119 in Manchester.

"I think the first hundred will always be the important one," he said. "It was a special one because we kept ourselves alive in that series in England.

"The Australian tour immediately after in 1991-92 was extremely good for me because I had a good tour, scored a couple of hundreds at Sydney and at Perth, two different kind of surfaces.

"That gave me immense confidence. I felt I could tour anywhere in the world now and score runs. That was probably the turning point of my career, I would say."

Tendulkar's ton against a four-man battery of Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Mike Whitney and Paul Reiffel on a WACA Ground wicket which, in those days, was a haven for pace bowlers, remains one of the great innings played on Australian soil.

Only 19, Tendulkar cut, pulled and hooked Australia's quicks to all parts of the ground.

While he still is capable of the spectacular, Tendulkar isn't the force he once was and it's doubtful he would be able to craft such a knock now, aged 35.

He refuses to be specific about how long he would like to play, but the indications are he would like to play the 2011 World Cup to be held in across the subcontinent.

National selection chairman Kris Srikkanth said yesterday he believed Tendulkar could play for another two years, after he passed Brian Lara's run-scoring record on day one of the second Test against Australia.

Tendulkar holds the run-scoring records in Tests and one-day internationals.