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'To live with pressure for the whole country for so many years is incredible'
Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest sportsperson that India has ever produced and his "super human" mental strength is "god-like", feels two-time PGA Tour winner golfer Daniel Chopra, who is currently playing in the Indian Open.
Chopra is a Swedesh golfer with Indian roots.
"I watch cricket live every day India plays. There is a website which I subscribe to. I have never met Sachin. The only cricketer I met was Sourav Ganguly and I have known Kapil Dev through golf," said the 39-year-old Chopra, who spent a lot of his childhood in Delhi.
"Sachin is the greatest sportsman India has ever produced and there is not even a close second. He will take the gold, silver and bronze medal in that category and it is incredible.
"His cricketing skills are tremendous but you also have to admire his strength of his mind. I mean to be able to live with the pressures of the whole country -- and we all know how emotional Indian fans can be. If India loses badly in a Test series, houses gets burnt and it is horrible. So it is difficult to play abroad worrying about what is happening back home. To live with that kind of pressure for so many years is incredible."
'Tendulkar's mental strength is god-like and super-human'
Chopra added: "When he knows that the fate of the entire team rests on his shoulders for a good 15 years -- even though the team had Rahul Dravid and Ganguly -- it is his responsibility to play well because he is the guy, the anchor and that mental strength, that one aspect is god-like.
Everybody calls him god, and I think that is ridiculous, but that type of mental strength is super human."
Tendulkar played his 199th Test at the Eden Gardens, in Kolkata, as India beat the West Indies by an innings and 51 runs in the first.
He will retire after his landmark 200th match in Mumbai, the second and last Test of the series against the tourists, bringing to an end a glorious 24-year stint in international cricket.