"Why does batting get more difficult?" - Greg Chappell recalls intriguing conversation with Sachin Tendulkar during India coaching stint

Former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell claimed that legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar had once come to him for advice when the former was the head coach of the Indian team.

Chappell recalled the incident and said that Tendulkar had asked him a petty interesting question about why the latter found batting difficult although that shouldn't have been the case as he was experienced enough.

Here's what Chappell told RevSportz about his conversation with Tendulkar:

"It was interesting...soon after I started coaching for India, I was in my room in the hotel when the phone rang and it was Sachin. He asked whether he can come and talk to me. He then came down and the question he asked was, 'Why does batting get more difficult? It should surely get easier'. I said, ‘Not really'"

Greg Chappell explained the reason to Sachin Tendulkar

Greg Chappell explained to Sachin Tendulkar that as time passes, the opposition tends to work out their ways of understanding the weaknesses of a batter. He opined that Tendulkar would need to focus on the basics and not complicate things too much.

On this, Chappell stated:

"As one gets older, the oppositions tends to know more about the player and then they know how to bowl better and what fields to set. Then you also realise how hard it is to perform at that level constantly and how much mental hard work it requires to score each run. Hence, to score like you were young, you have to think like how you were young. And that means getting rid of some of this extraneous information, keeping it simple, and focus on the basic things."

Chappell's tenure with Team India is not recalled fondly by many, with the biggest disappointment being India not qualifying for the main phase of the 2007 World Cup.