After scoring back-to-back double Test match double hundreds in 1993, Vinod Kambli famously said: "Sachin [Tendulkar] took the elevator [to success], I took the staircase."
Those double hundreds came in his third and fourth Tests. He then got 125 in his sixth Test and 120 in his 7th Test, 82 in his 9th Test and 57 in his 10th. At that point he had scored 937 runs, averaging a Bradmanesque 93.70 per innings. Though he came into the Test side a little over three years after Tendulkar, Kambli's stupendous success reiterated the fact for those in Mumbai who believed he was marginally better than Tendulkar at that stage of their careers. Kambli had raised visions of a great Test career and join the galaxy of the game's greats. However, he scored just 147 runs in his next seven Tests to see his career come to an ignominious, premature and shocking end.
Kambli and Tendulkar's friendship from the schooldays was as spoken and written about as their exploits on the field of play. Yet, the discerning knew that cracks would appear sooner than later, especially the way Kambli went about leading his life — in complete contrast to high morals of Tendulkar, who went to great lengths to lead an exemplary life.
Unlike Tendulkar, Kambli came from an economically challenged background. He lacked the emotional, financial and family stability in the formative years that Tendulkar got from his erudite, well-knit and supportive family, which studiously remained in the background and stayed rooted to their strong middle-class values. They say a man is known by the company he keeps. As Kambli floundered in life, leading a life that was the polar opposite of his iconic friend, it would have become increasingly clear to Tendulkar that the proximity with Kambli — who simply refused to learn from his mistakes — was going to hurt him and his squeaky clean image.
Instead of showing grit and guts of a champion to fight back and regain his place in the national side and do justice to his phenomenal talents, Kambli went into a downward spiral of a bottomless pit, while Tendulkar shot into an orbit where no other cricketer ever reached.
Kambli became bitter, while Tendulkar got better. Kambli's first marriage ended in an acrimonious divorce, while Tendulkar found a strong source of strength in Anjali, which allowed his career to bloom. Kambli resorted to flashy clothes, bizarre hairstyles, a Bhappi Lahiri-like affinity for gold to attract attention.
Tendulkar always dressed nattily, behaved with utmost responsibility and dignity in public life and was conferred divine status by his followers. Above all, it was his cricket which spoke all the right things about him. Right throughout his career, Tendulkar's obsession with cricket was maniacal. He would be seen with a bat and ball in the dressing room, drawing room and wherever he could.
If Tendulkar gave nightmares to the opponents, Kambli gave nightmares to his own teammates. He slept in the dressing room during domestic matches while his teammates were fielding and had to be called to rush to the ground for inter-office matches while his team was batting and in danger of being shot out.
Kambli continued to attract attention for all the wrong reasons… changing his religion, putting an acrimonious end to his marriage, not showing restraint with drinking, stirring up a controversy about the 1996 World Cup sem-final 15 years later, but worst of all, shockingly selling his friendship with Tendulkar on a reality show, "Sach ka saamna". No person in his right mind would have done that; the TV channel had everything to gain and Kambli had lots to lose. Yet, he did not have the commonsense or the support system to prevent him from making a suicidal presence as a participant on the show.
Television was all about TRPs [Target Rating Points], and the anchor posed an explosive question: "Do you believe that Sachin could have done more to save you from your self-destructive behavior? Kambli answered in the affirmative to the disgust of everybody who knew Tendulkar.
Kambli had delivered a blow below Tendulkar's belt and caused what looks like irrevocable damage to their friendship. Tendulkar has remained his mature self and not fed the media with quotes, if only to counter the allegations. He did not feel the need to. The litany of Kambi's past spoke for itself. As for Kambli, he looked for scapegoats than taking onus of his own life. And if the scapegoat had to be a friend who had to be made into a sacrificial goat, so be it.
He obviously learnt nothing from that television show when he told Zee News that he was hurt that Tendulkar did not name him in his farewell speech at the Wankhede Stadium. The comment could not have come at a worst time, considering the nation was still misty-eyed after bidding their heroic son an unprecedented farewell.
Kambli, predictably, was wrong yet again. Tendulkar named only his immediate family members in his speech and made a passing reference to some of his past teammates whom he saw on the giant screen; it was not part of the pointers that he carried with him. He is far too clever to name anyone else and put himself in an awkward position. Kambli is hilariously delusional when he says: "If that [664-run] partnership wouldn't have happened, people wouldn't have known who is Vinod Kambli and who is Sachin Tendulkar." Anybody who had even a passing idea of cricket could have predicted that Tendulkar would go on to play for the country, and with distinction. He was special and it was apparent. But Kambli want to live with his delusions.
Neurotic as ever, Kambli told Zee News he is hurt that he was not in the list of friends who were invited by Tendulkar for his party after his farewell Test. I don't see why Tendulkar should have. In Kambli's own words in that interview to Zee he says: "I haven't heard Sachin's voice for a long time and it hurts me. It's been seven long years and we haven't met each other… It seems as if we have become enemies now." The last sentence should, in all probably, tearing the friendship apart irremovably, if it has not already.
"Dost, dost na raha," could well be a Bollywood script in the making of the two childhood friends who made it to the top and then got torn apart and went in opposite directions — in life and career.
It's not just in Tests, but Kambli also had a fabulous First-Class career. He scored 35 hundreds and 44 half-centuries from just 129 matches. And his career average of 59.67 ranks No 13 in the history of First-Class among all batsmen who have played a minimum of 50 innings. Sadly, the man who destroyed Shane Warne for 22 runs in an over, imploded by pressing the self-destruct button.
(H Natarajan, formerly All India Deputy Sports Editor of the Indian Express and Senior Editor with Cricinfo/Wisden, is the Executive Editor of CricketCountry.com. A prolific writer, he has written for many of the biggest newspapers, magazines and websites all over the world. A great believer in the power of social media, he can be followed on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/H. Natarajan and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/ hnatarajan) www.keralites.net 
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