Sachin Tendulkar. How will his career end ?

[Asim]

Sachin Tendulkar is probably the most famous cricketer the world has ever seen. He is one of the most talented and one of the best batsmen(if not The Best) to have ever played cricket. He exploded on international circuit as a teenager and played with a lot of determination against the lethal Pakistani attack.(Seemingly he continued batting in a blood soaked shirt against Waqar Younis).
He is and remains the most accomplished batsmen India has every produced.

He has played over 19 years of International cricket, but he is only 35 years old. During his career he played under various captains including Kriss Srikanth, Kapil Dev, Azharuddin, Saurav Ganguly , Rahul Dravid etc., he himself lead India for a while, and along the way he has achieved great Individual records, and world wide recognition.

He has helped the Indian team to win various titles and has carried the ever growing pressure to perform and successfully carried the burden of fans on his shoulders all through his career. Every time he failed his performance was microscopically scrutinized. Now, however, he holds the record for scoring the highest no of One-Day centuries(42) and half centuries(89). He has aggregated over 16,000 runs in ODI's and over 11,000 runs in Tests. These are no mean feats by any stretch of imagination.

Having said that, lets me bring your notice to the main point of this article.

I am sure no one would argue with the fact that Tendulkar has done enough to earn our respect. He battled through a career threatening back injury (during that period almost everyone thought his career was over), then he over-came the tennis elbow injury and silenced all his critiques in the way he knows best (By performing with the bat). Now he is injured again( it is seemingly a groin injury) which kept him out of most of the IPL games, Bangladesh Tri Sereis and is keeping him away from cricket in Asia Cup as well.

Is his body giving away? Has the rigorous international schedule finally impacted Sachin Tendulkar ? I personally hope that this is not the case. I really want him to come back and keep performing for as long as he can.

 But..........

As we all know all good things will come to an end. Sooner or later Sachin is going to retire. Should he retire now from One-Day cricket and keep playing Test matches . Or should he continue to play both ? I dont think he can (though I want him to) play until 2011 World Cup.

I would definitely not want to see his career end like most career's end in the subcontinent. Saurav Ganguly is the most recent example. Kapil Dev was dropped once Azharuddin  took over the captaincy. Most legends of India and Pakistan keep playing well beyond their Peak Years. Wasim, Waqar, Kapil etc., all of them were dropped and after a few months announced their retirements. The only one who got a good farewell was Inzamam, Similarly Imran Khan came out of retirement and won the World Cup for Pakistan.

It would be extremely disappointing to see Tendulkar being dropped from the team.(during CB series when tendulkar wasnt performing in the initial stages, Dhoni hinted that no-ones place in the team was secure, they have to perform to stay in the team and then Tendulkar came back strong with a century)Again with the future in mind, the Indian team management is more inclined towards blooding young players, Sehwag and Gambhir are playing well at the moment, should Tendulkar come back one of them will have to make way for him.

We all saw how Gilchrist, McGrath, Shane Warne retired. They retired when they were still performing well. And according to me they were given the farewell they deserved. (A very emotional and heart-warming farewell.)

What do you all think Tendulkar should do now ? Is it the right time for Tendulkar to retire?(though his best years are behind him, he is still a force to reckon). When should he retire? The ideal situation for Tendulkar would be to play in 2011 world cup and score a century in the final of World cup and win the cup for India.(This is possible but I don't think Tendulkar will last that long.(hope he does)).

Imagine the above scenario does not happen, then which of the following do you all want to happen.
1. Tendulkar playing his last innings in front of his home crowd, at Wankhade Stadium and scoring a century and winning the game for India.
2. Playing his last match in Sri-lanka and scoring 10 and India losing in a World Cup match in 2011.

Personally I am in favor of the first scenario.

What do you all think? What thoughts are coming to your mind. Most of us would want Tendulkar to never retire, but he will some day. I want to remember the day he retires in the same breath as I remember his entire career with respect and dignity.

[ElliottPurser]

he should leave on a high, scenario one sounds good... but what if you could mix them both?!

[samsensation]

well i honestly don't think sachin will last till the 2011 WC, one thing is for sure, given sachin's status and fan following, he surely will be given a good farewell.

[karthikeyan113]

Even though sachin played for 19 years.... He didn't win a world cup for India.
I hope that he will play the next world cup 2011 and then should retire on the glory, 
with India winning the World Cup !!!

Jayasurya is still playing @ 39 yrs... Why cant sachin play ??
When he is performing constantly, he should not be stopped unless he wants to and until he wins a world cup for India.

[Nawaz]

The example u gave of some australians were good...but I dunno why the world don't look at other players like Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh and other australians who got dropped bcz of their performance and got retired after that, in the same way kapil and others .............and I don't agree with this article and those 2 options...Y?? only 2 there can b more.....
--> Sachin hits century in the World cup 2011 final to lead India to glory and announces his retirement.
--> Sachin hits his 50th ODI Century in 2011 world cup and announces his retirement after the world cup.

Just don't think extremes......If thats the case..Y any other australian does'nt have the records what Sachin achieved........Even if he get retired after being dropped from the team he still gets the same honor and respect.

Lets hope for the Best.
"If u truly respect someone, u wll not count on his -tives and cannot thing bad abt them"

[Asim]

A good point Nawaz, however, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh were really good players but players like Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath and Tendulkar for that matter are Legends they have achieved unparalleled success.
So though I agree with you that Sachin has done enough to earn our respect no matter how his career ends but do you want to drop Sehwag or Gambhir from their opening position which both of them like if not from the team. Because Sachin wants to open. If Sachin performs well in the coming one-day series it would be good however if he doenst perform well then believe me there would be questions raised about his position in the team.

[Nawaz]

This topic is completely different......I thought we were talking abt the retirement of Sachin not his current form.
But 1 thing I can tell u...This guy can come back from any end and he has not just done enough to earn respect for himself but also brought name and fame to INDIA too.

[Asim]

I am of the opinion that his current form would have a direct impact on his retirement, if he doesnt perform well I have no doubt in my mind that Dhoni with the mind set of going forward would want to have people who are in good form. It was Dhoni who wanted the cricket board to give him young players instead of old for the CB Series and in the initial matches Tendulkar was not performing and he went on to the extent of saying that no player can take his place in the team for granted then the GREAT Sachin came back with back to back scores of 90. which not only helped him but also helped India win the CB Series.
So I may be wrong but I believe that at tendulkars age his current form would affect his future

[Tags:]

GoogleTagged: khan soaked sachintendulkar dev match srilanka cricket retires sachin odi
playing will when live statistics centuries 2008 test shirt