the emergence of sachin tendulkar and anil kumble in 1989 and 1990 was to herald an era of indian cricket that was dominated by stars and individual brilliance. sachin tendulkar became arguably the best batsman in the world, along with brian lara of the west indies and in 1998, sir donald bradman himself remarked that tendulkar batting style was similar to his. mohammed azharuddin, who captained india for most of the 1990s, proved a captain whose main strength, if not his motivational skills, was an ability to stay cool under pressure. azharuddin's artistic batting however declined during the later years of his captaincy, and his best innings during this time were mostly when playing at home. the hyderabadi stylist's career ended after 99 tests when he was banned for life after being implicated in the match-fixing scandal. under his captaincy, the indian team became virtually unbeatable at home, with big wins against teams such as england, sri lanka, south africa and australia. their performances abroad, however, left a lot to be desired.