Indian World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev has said that master blaster Sachin Tendulkar could have played to his full potential had he spent time with West Indian legend Vivian Richards to be "ruthless" instead of spending time with Mumbai players who played "just straight cricket."
The former all-rounder was speaking at a programme in Dubai on Wednesday to give a piece of his mind on 42-year-old Tendulkar, who incidentally, remains the only cricketer in history to score 100 centuries in Test cricket and ODIs.
"Don't get me wrong, but I think Sachin didn't do justice to his talent. I always thought he could have done much more than what he did," Dev was quoted as saying by the Dubai newspaper Khaleej Times.
"He [Sachin] got stuck with Bombay cricket. He didn't apply himself to the ruthless international cricket. I think he should have spent more time with Vivian Richards than some of the Bombay guys who played just neat and straight cricket," the 1983 World Cup-winning captain added.
Tendulkar also has the distinction of being the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, apart from scoring the highest number of runs in both ODIs and Test cricket.
However, Dev feels that the little master was more keen on scoring hundreds, but not double, triple, or even quadruple centuries.
"Sachin was a much better cricketer but somewhere along the line he just knew how to score hundreds. He didn't know how to make it a double hundred, or a triple or even 400s," the 1983 World Cup winning India captain said.
"He had the ability. He was technically sound but I felt he was there to get his hundred and that's it.
"Unlike Richards, Sachin wasn't ruthless, he was more of a perfect, or rather correct cricketer. Had I spent more time with him I would have told him 'go enjoy yourself, play like Virender Sehwag'. You will be a much better cricketer," Dev explained.
Other cricket legends Wasim Akram, Shane Warne and Ian Botham were also present at the event.
Meanwhile, twitterati have reacted to his comments with mixed responses:
