New Delhi, April 4 : India's batting legend Sachin Tendulkar said Monday that he was extremely lucky to play for 22 years and be a part of a World Cup winning side.

"I am passionate about playing cricket for India, winning matches for India and if that passion is alive it's not difficult to motivate yourself. I've always considered myself lucky to be playing for such a long time. Putting in hard work is in my hands but the result I don't know. But trying is in my hands and I can guarantee that everyday I'll go and give my 100 percent so my mantra is as simple as that," Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar said the feeling of winning the World Cup is yet to sink and that he and his teammates had to pinch themselves to realise that they have finally won the World Cup after 28 years.

"It hasn't sunk in yet honestly... I don't know how to react to this... just when the tournament got over and we actually held the trophy we had to actually pinch ourselves. Now that the tournament is over, we don't know what to look forward to now, what is next in life," he said.

"Pre-tournament, we were so engrossed in planning things and working out certain things... looking out at strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and all of a sudden the tournament is over and we've won the Cup... It is difficult to believe, but it's a wonderful dream," Tendulkar told CNN-IBN.

Asked about his feeling at lifting the trophy, Tendulkar said: "It was the proudest moment of my life by far, because the reason for me to start playing cricket was to lift this beautiful trophy one day."

"I've waited for long 22 years. It's a rather long period to wait but the best part was I continued chasing my dream. My dream was to lift the trophy and god was kind enough to allow me to do this on 2nd of April."(IANS)