PTI

New Delhi, Jul 17: Describing John Buchanan's criticism of Sachin Tendulkar's abilities in the T20 format as mere a publicity stunt, Mumbai Indians coach Pravin Amre on Friday said the batting maestro's genius is unrivaled in the shorter versions of the game.

Amre, also the coach of the Mumbai Ranji team, said "It is wrong to question Sachin's abilities in any format of the game. Even at this stage of his career he has played all the IPL matches and demonstrated his commitment to the game. I believe all this criticism is a publicity stunt."

The former Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan recently wrote in his new book 'The future of cricket: the rise of T20' that Tendulkar is not fit to play T20.

"Sachin is not the daring batsman he was before. The T20 format requires batsmen to be fearless and inventive and he lacks those qualities."

Amre, who also studied in the Sharadashram school like Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli and later joined Ramakant Achrekar's coaching centre refuted rumours that has erupted after Kambli's comments on Sachin.

"Vinod Kambli has clarified on the matter and also issued an apology and so I think the issue has been buried," he said.

Kambli recently revealed in a reality show that Tendulkar did not support him when he was going through a bad patch.

Before leaving for Australia with the Indian team to participate in the emerging player's tournament Amre agreed that the tournament is a nice platform for young players to display their talent.

"Most of the players like captain S Badrinath, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Abhishek Nayar, Dhaval Kulkarni are at the threshold of breaking into the national team and this tournament is an opportunity for them to make their case stronger

"His will be a test of the player's technique as well as fitness in foreign soil because we are playing nine matches in 13 days. There will be 20-20 as well as 50 over matches where players will face a litmus test," Amre added.

The former Test cricketer also said "In one way this competition is a test for all the probable players of Indian team. We have a strong team but others are also very capable so it will be a very exciting tournament."

Amre, who had previously coached at different levels, disclosed that sticking to a strategy is the key to winning matches. He further said that it is the coach's responsibility to make sure that the plan is employed and agreed that it is not easy.

"Many a times it is not just enough to have a strong team, Mumbai Indians was one of the strongest teams in the IPL but we could not live upto the expectations. Inability to implement strategy was the reason for our losses," said Amre.