Yet again, Tendulkar steps out of his ivory tower only to announce his reluctance to retire any time soon.
Wonder whether this man can ever take a hint.
It is high time people like Gavaskar or Shastri took him aside and asked him to quit gracefully.
What do you say?
23 comments:
He should have bid adieu to ODIs at least after two finals in oz...that was as high as he can get in ODIs...let RS take over...
but something tells me that he is eying 2011 world cup...
sachin should stay because we need short guys who can easily convert normal balls to no-balls. Pun intended.
the lure of money quite strong you see ;)
Pan,
Interesting. You would consider RS in place of Tendulkar?
CB,
:)
Philip,
Careful. One does not speak of God in this manner. :)
And why is there this clamor for Sachin to retire anyways?
What aspect of his batsmanship makes anyone believe that he is past it?
And while we are at it, Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid anyone?
Cheers
Homer,
To your first question, Why not? His body has given up the ghost. He is picking and choosing his matches, overall he has become a pain in the neck. :)
To your second question, I am all for it.
Ottayan,
Has his run production diminished? And where has he been picking and choosing his matches?
He was there all through the Australia series. And the Pakistan series before that. And the England series before that..And he played the first test of the South Africa series.
Missing out on an ODI series ( against Bangladesh and then the Asia Cup) is tantamount to picking and choosing?
Are we talking of the same man who played one day in Kuala Lumpur and the next day in Toronto because of the whims of stupid politicians/administocrats?
Seriously, how is it that Rahul Dravid gets away with scoring the most painful 12 runs you will see in a Test match ( The Oval 2007), does not show any semblance of form in Australia( the 93 notwithstanding), plays his role in
the debacle at Newlannds ( he was the set batsman when Tendulkar came to the crease) but somehow is hailed the greatest number 3 India had - no clamour for his retirement..
But Sachin - one groin strain and the world wants him out..
Fine.
Ever contemplated life after Sachin ( especially if he is pushed out instead of leaving on his own terms) ?
Cheers
Homer,
I am not diminishing his achievements. What I am saying is what does he have for the future?
How is India benefited by his continued presence?
BTW, never liked Dravid. Always held him responsible for all our fourth innings collapse.
Ottayan,
Maybe that is where the problem lies - we are too quick on the trigger with people who we think are past their sell by date.
If Sachin is in a continued trough with no visible signs of coming out, the question can be asked of him blocking the promotion of one of the younger guys.. But that is not the case, at present.
And we seem to discount the X factpr Sachin brings into the dressing room - how many stories have you heard of Rahul Dravid or Saurav Ganguly talkin cricketing nuances with some of the younger players ( although Rahul will be ideal to talk to kids on constructing an innings).
Thing is, whether we like it or not, we need the Fab 5 for one more season in Test Cricket because, barring Badri, none of the other kids are ready - even Rohit needs one more season of Ranji play before he can be Test match ready.
Cheers
Those who require a crane on hire to remove the elephant tendulkar from the team can kindly contact me... it's on the house.
Seriously, he will retire after he has arthritis and gonaditis.
In a couple of more months, it would be apt to use the chemical weapons that I have been storing.
To be dead serious, he may maximum have a couple of months to a year... if he doesn't quit contact me.
His injuries will retire him. He seems to be saying these things just to irritate somebody somewhere.
The kind of career that he has had, it's only fair that he decides when he wants to leave.
You cant be serious. You actually think there is someone to replace Sachin in India's batting line up?
The man should play on for as long as he likes.
Sachin is best placed to determine his own future. He will know better than anyone else - media, armchair critics, or even doctors about how his body is feeling. If fitness, is the reason you are alluding to, as the primary reason for calling for retirement, then you or me are in no place to make that assessment.
Now batsmanship is another matter, and you can build your argument on that, though personally I would feel it would be tough to find younger batsmen who would be able to have as much of an impact as him, on a tournament as he did in Oz, ODIs and Tests. Leave impact aside, I have not seen anything from anyone yet that can make them a consistently run-making force at th highest level and against the best bowlers.
The other values of Tendulkar lies in guiding a young batting order bereft of the solidity provided by the retirements of Dravid and Ganguly. The future benefits of young Raina, Sharma, or Y Pathan batting alonside The Little Master (yes, still, not just for batsmanship but for his educational value) cannot be neglected.
And what is wrong with picking and choosing matches because of fitness problems, if it means that a valuable commodity (and I hope that the two previous paras have shown that he is indeed one) stays with us longer?
Just a thought. Isn't it ridiculous to think that anyone can replace Sachin. He is a one-off player. There will be none to fill his shoes.
Having said that, why should a cricketer even if he is Sachin given so much leeway?
All this talk of him guiding the young un's are inconsequential. For the matter, most of the current lot have played with him for more than 2 years.
Ah! the X factor- that too has been done to death :)
Come on guys bring in fresh perspectives:)
Cheers.
Actually Ott, it is the guy insisting on retirement that should bring in the fresh perspective. Anything else is a logical fallacy for you are the one seeking to disturb status quo. Also, I think I have shown why your arguments on fitness and batsmanship dont work. To repy to another point you make, none of the youngsters have batted with Tendulkar in Tests.
John,
Simply put I think he should retire as he is not he force he was. Plus instead of leading the whole nation on, he should certainly indicate when he is likely to retire in order to plan for the future.
This piece meal approach of his is selfish and unbecoming of a player of his stature.
otta, i'm sure you must be one of the guys who said he should retire after a few failures in the cb series. and we all know what he did in those two finals. there's not one batsman in the indian side who can provide the kind of assurance and presence in the middle sachin can. his captaincy is shit, but there's no one who comes close to him in terms of consistency as a batsman.
Uber,
Now there you have me. :)
A correction, I have written in this very blog during the Aussie tour of India that he should retire. Of course he made a fool of me by some scintillating batting at the end of the series, which promptly made me write another post which said this man should stay.
Truth to be told, I like playing the devil's advocate and I indulge myself to the maximum.:0
Having said that I know you will agree with me that Tendulkar is having almost the same stature in Indian cricket as Gandhi did in Indian politics post Independence.
As a thinking man don't you agree it is bad for the individual (Tendulkar) and also for the nation?
Let me have your considered response.
Ott,
He is not the force that he used to be - I agree, but does that mean he is not a valuable cricketer? He certainly cannot be dropped, and if he feels that he is one of the top 5 batsmen in the country, why should he open himself up for retirement? There is no case to treat Sachin any different from any batsman as far as selection policy goes. That we have done so in the past, is not an argument to perpetuate it.
Secondly, on planning for the future. Why does he need to give a specific date/season of retirement? Have we asked the same of any other performing batsman? Is it fair to ask a batsmen to predict the exact day to which he going to continue contributing? Are we as professionals in other fields, able to predict with any certainty how useful/useless we will be to the organizational goals? It is not only unfair, planning has nothing to do with Sachin. It is the selection committee's responsibility to have an eye on the future, and it is their responsibility to let Sachin on to their plans. To argue that they need to know about Sachin's plans in order to plan for the future is to wash their hands of their responsibility.
And Ott, we are indebted to you for playing the Devil's advocate. You have let us clarify our own thoughts on this matter. Thanks.
i will consider what you are saying, otta, and come back with a response soon. until then, more power to playing the devil's advocate!
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