NEW DELHI, Feb 27: When Sachin Tendulkar travels to Pakistan next month for India's first Test series there since 1989, keeping his weight in check will overshadow any fears about personal safety.
The man widely regarded as the best batsman in contemporary cricket said on Friday the prospect of being confined to hotel rooms in the evenings due to the stifling security will be daunting.
"It is going to be tough, not easy to relax your mind," Tendulkar told the Mid-Day newspaper ahead of the 40-day tour of five One-day Internationals and three Tests which begins on March 10.
Asked how he would endure the boredom, Tendulkar said: "I have not experienced it so I do not know what I am going to do. "But you can watch movies, carry good music, get together and hope not to put on weight."
Tendulkar is the only current Indian player to have played a Test in Pakistan before, having made his international debut as a 16-year-old on the previous tour.
The master batsman, who will turn 31 a week after the team returns home on April 17, admitted the tour will be like no other, but stressed he was not concerned about his security.
"I am sure no one is going to harm any sportsperson," Tendulkar told the daily. "I am okay with it. I think the government and the cricket board have taken enough precautions.
"In the beginning, my family wanted to know what was happening. What kind of security they were providing. Once everything was cleared, it was okay. "My wife is pretty much okay with it. She knows that the people concerned have taken care."
But the millionaire cricketer has no idea what he will do in his spare time. "When we come back in the evening after the days play, we will not be able to do things like going to restaurants, taking a walk or just feeling free to do whatever we want," he said.
"We will be confined to our hotel and that is going to be the difficult part. It will be a different experience because we have not done that before." Tendulkar hoped fans in both countries would not react adversely to what happens on the field.
"It is not a war. It is a game so treat it as one," he said. Tendulkar, who scored 215 runs in six innings against Pakistan on his debut in 1989, is the leading light of a batting cast that includes skipper Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Virender Sehwag.
He also has a score to settle with Pakistan. During the last Test series between the arch-rivals in 1999, Pakistan won the first Test at Chennai by 12 runs after Tendulkar was dismissed 17 runs short of the target after making 136. Then in the Kolkata Test, he was clean-bowled first ball by a vicious Shoaib Akhtar yorker that set up another 46-run victory for Pakistan. -AFP