i have a form with many tabs on it. I want to set a specific tab page to show on load of the form everytime i load the form

I used TabPageControl1.SelectedTab=MyTabPage; but the value of selectedtab is null. It is throwing an exception that reference not set to an object.

private void PreferencesForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        this.cbxCustomDataType.DrawMode = DrawMode.OwnerDrawFixed;
        this.cbxCustomDataType.DrawItem += new DrawItemEventHandler(cbxCustomDataType_DrawItem);

        this.cbxColumnDataType.DrawMode = DrawMode.OwnerDrawFixed;
        this.cbxColumnDataType.DrawItem += new DrawItemEventHandler(cbxColumnDataType_DrawItem);
        GetProjectDetails();
       this.preferencesTabControl.SelectedTab= tpCompareUpdate;

    }