The boy with the bat. That was what I thought when I first saw him. He got 88 against us in the second Test at Napier on the 1989-90 tour, and he always reminds me that I caught him at mid-off because if I hadn't, he would have become the youngest person to make a Test hundred. We had all heard about this kid who had been to Pakistan earlier that season and got runs but you hear a lot of stories about a lot of players, so it wasn't until Napier that I knew he was going to be a very, very good player.

I didn't have very much to do with him between then and coaching the team now, except when India toured New Zealand in 1993-94. I was doing a bit of commentary and I took my young son to meet Sachin at Wellington. The nicest thing about him was his humility. He was just really kind and he signed a bat for Harry. You remember that as an ex-player. You think, `This guy is a really good person'.

I never had any worries about coaching him. He's just so professional. He's never late, ever. He knows exactly what he wants to get out of training. And his self-analysis is very, very good. He knows exactly what he wants you to look at or keep an eye on, which makes working with him easy. He knows how to correct things or play around with certain things, even during an innings. Sachin has it up there [the head], that's what makes the difference.

Cricket doesn't seem to be a chore to him, which can happen when you've played a lot like he has. I think he has a great love for the game and a great love for India and the people who love him. He knows who he represents.

As a coach you don't want him to be a mere accumulator but obviously you do want him to get runs. It is up to him how he plays, or how many he gets, and it is an interesting decision for him. He can bat at the edge of the envelope at times, which is just glorious to watch. But sometimes you want to pull him back and say, "Just give me a calm 150". You know, he said to me when we were playing Zimbabwe [Nagpur, 2000], "I'm not going to hit a ball in the air". He didn't, and he got 201 not out.

I've seen him bat in India with all the pressures that involves but I've never seen him flustered or impatient. He is rare because he is great as a sportsman and as a person – he's got an aura about him.

There's no doubt about it, the boys are all proud to have Sachin in their team. People see how he plays, they all see that, but we live with him and we see how he lives. And that's the neat bit because he is humble, modest and courteous. He is definitely a leader within the team. The young players have an enormous respect and affection for him. He really cares about the youngsters and wants them to do well, and he is good at coaching. How does he prepare? You'd have to ask him that. Players like that, you leave them alone. If they want some help, you help them but you don't get in the way. The worst thing you can do is put things in their heads.

As a coach it is hard to be objective but there is a presence of mind about him, a greatness, like Muhammad Ali. Lots of people, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, have massive talent, but Sachin has worked hard – when he was a kid he once played 52 days in a row; his coach took him around on a motorbike.

The thing I love about watching him bat is watching him think because there are times when he changes his game. I think the greatest challenge for him, and it will come, is that he can make us a great side because he can make the others play better around him.

He's getting to a stage now when he's played a lot of cricket and he's getting smarter. I think he'll get more runs from here on in.

John Wright spoke to Tanya Aldred

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