Should Tendulkar retire?

[CC1981]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire? :wtg: :wtg:

[King]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire? What I don't agree with the blog is that Tendulkar is not 18 year old for people to show patience with him or treat him like any other batter in the side. Whether you like it or not he has played over 17 years of international cricket and for that reason alone expectations are more than what you can expect from say Uthappa or Karthik. This holds good for every senior in the team. Tendulkar has struggled, no second thoughts about that and he has failed more often than he has succeded in the last couple of years or three. You can allow him a leeway of a year or two at the most but when he struggles to score and score big naturally people will call for his sacking. At current form Tendulkar comes after quite a few players. I don't personally believe he will get any better but he can still play test cricket for about couple of years not with standing whether he will dominate or not. Tendulkar certainly is not at the top of the list of performers for India right now. From thinking none can replace Tendulkar in the Indian team it has come to anyone can replace Tendulkar given his current form :shrug:

[Bumper]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire?

And when he plays a good innings in the next match, every TV channel will dig up at least one idiot ex-cricketer (Kris Srikkanth, anyone?) who?s willing to come and say something like ?see, this is why he is the best batsman since Bradman?. And the cycle is perpetuated all over again.

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

[Chandan]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire?

What I don't agree with the blog is that Tendulkar is not 18 year old for people to show patience with him or treat him like any other batter in the side. Whether you like it or not he has played over 17 years of international cricket and for that reason alone expectations are more than what you can expect from say Uthappa or Karthik. This holds good for every senior in the team.

But Ravi, Where is he saying that? He is simply saying that Sachin is no longer the best batsman in India, let alone being so in the world? Then why are we fussing so much about him? Neither his success nor his failure should trigger the amount of debate it triggers now in media. And 17 years of experience doesn't mean that you should expect him to be the best all the time!! Why can't we treat him like any other batter in side is my question. Everyone knows that he isn't the best anymore. So WHY CAN'T HE BE LIKE ANY OTHER BATTER?

[King]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire?

So WHY CAN'T HE BE LIKE ANY OTHER BATTER?

That is what I was coming at. Tendulkar cannot be treated like any other batter simply because of his experience. You wouldn't want to put Uthappa, Karthik, Tendulkar in the same basket and apply same yardstick just beccause Tendulkar is not the best in the world. Tendulkar has a more prominent role to play than Karthik. Obviously expectations as for Tendulkar is going to be more irrespective of his form and stature in international cricket.

He is simply saying that Sachin is no longer the best batsman in India, let alone being so in the world? Then why are we fussing so much about him? Neither his success nor his failure should trigger the amount of debate it triggers now in media.

Can't speak for the rest but am not worried only about Tendulkar. I'm pissed at all the batters. Collectively they couldn't play full 50 overs in 2 games :shrug:

[Chandan]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire?

Tendulkar has a more prominent role to play than Karthik.

Can't we relegate Sachin to perform less important roles that say Dravid, Yuvraj or Sehwag? I'm not able to understand why he'll have to play a more prominent role when he is not at his best.

[King]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire?

Tendulkar has a more prominent role to play than Karthik.

Can't we relegate Sachin to perform less important roles that say Dravid, Yuvraj or Sehwag? I'm not able to understand why he'll have to play a more prominent role when he is not at his best.

Sure we should. I don't place much confidence in him at all. I give up on the game the minute Rahul Dravid gets out these days. I usually expect Yuvraj to score some runs and Dhoni to come good. My expectations of Tendulkar comes after these fellas have failed. Sehwag is much worse form than Tendulkar anyways.

[Vishwatma]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire? sure he's nothing close to his prime form...but does that mean he shld retire? absolutely not!! his experience for one...is so vast that even if it doesn't help his own game...it can help lift the game of the other members of the team (the younger ones that MUST come into the team or must be given their due chances)... frankly, altho i don't think sachin can become what he was during his prime years....but he can however be not too distant from it...i.e. he'll still get better (than now that is)...he shld be given another chance...if sehwag can get his chances continuously for almost an year...then sachin def. deserves even more (ganguly sadly wasn't given what was due....but i feel if ppl treat sachin like the way they treated ganguly...sachin won't even try to make a come back...i mean why wld some1 want to take the pressure of billions over his shoulder all over again?)...waise bhi i personally felt...ganguly's return had a huge share of luck involved (just as much as it was his personal effort too) since india's middle/top order was crumbling at that stage with kaif, mongia and raina out of form

[The_Black_Prince]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire? YES !!!! He should have retired at least 2 years ago !!!

[shailesh]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire? don't be surprised if he becomes the next captain :shrug:

[Gambit]

Re: Should Tendulkar retire?

Here is a lovely post from jJai Arjun's blog. ------- Sunday, April 01, 2007 Obligatory ramble about Sachin I promised myself I wouldn?t blog about Sachin Tendulkar again (especially after writing this long personal post last year), but wouldn?t you know it, I?m breaking that promise now. Here?s an expansion of some of the things I said in a comment on Amit?s blog. Looking at a couple of the other comments on that post, I?m astonished by how many people think SRT has an obligation to be the Best Batsman in the World for all time. This for instance: Expectations are always from Sachin Tendulkar because he is Sachin Tendulkar. Because he is one the greatest ever. Because he can make a bowler ask this question to his mother ?Why was I even born??. However, time and again, it has been noted that he has not delivered when it mattered the most and when people looked up to him to save the matches. India has failed miserably every time he has failed. And of late, he has been failing continuously when we need our best batsman to give his best. Look at that chest-thumping first paragraph and then the shrill second paragraph, and see if you can reconcile the two opinions stated. Assume for argument?s sake that everything said in the second para is true (at least over the past 2-3 years). In that case, wouldn?t this be the logical conclusion to draw: Sachin is NOT the best batsman in the world anymore and it isn?t fair to keep judging him by that standard. In fact, as any balanced observer of the game (even his biggest worshippers, like yours truly) would know, SRT hasn?t been the world?s leading batsman for at least six years now; he hasn?t even been India?s best batsman for at least four years, going back to roughly the time when Rahul Dravid had those great series in England and Australia. (For much of the period since, he wasn?t even India?s second-best batsman, at least in Tests ? Virender Sehwag was.) There?s a delicious irony in the nature of Tendulkar-directed criticism. On the one hand, people lament that SRT is in the team solely because of his past achievements and the weight of his reputation, and that he should instead be judged strictly by his current worth. This is fair enough. But on the other hand, these same people use those very past achievements as benchmarks to condemn him. The real question to be asked (as Amit does in his post) is: Is he still good enough to be in the Indian side? Forget about what he once was and what we wanted him to be, and think about the here and now. As I?ve said before, back in 1989 when that 16-year-old kid walked into the Indian squad, he did NOT sign a pledge to the entire Indian populace that he would be The World?s Best Batsman and the sole repository of all their hopes and ambitions for the next 20 years, and that those were the only terms on which he would play cricket. In the history of sport, great champions have suffered far stranger and more dramatic declines than what has happened to Tendulkar in the past 4-5 years. Deal with it. Amit?s answer to the question ?Is Tendulkar good enough on current form?? is ?Yes?. I?m not so sure myself ? I don?t know enough about India?s bench strength and to what extent promising young players have been kept out in the past few years because the middle order has been so established and so ?untouchable?. I also think there?s some merit in Gaurav Varma?s comment that with an eye on building a team for the future there?s a case for dropping SRT even if he?s good enough to figure amongst India?s top six batsmen. But my concern here isn?t the ?should he be dropped? debate, it?s the very ugly nature of the criticism directed at SRT over the years. I?m aghast at the irresponsibility of most of India?s sports media in this respect. Through discussions with sports-journo friends and acquaintances, I know that there?s a strong current of anti-Tendulkarism in these circles ? has been, in fact, for several years, even going back to the days when he was the country?s best cricketer. And given the way many media insiders really feel about him, it seems like a diabolical conspiracy that newspapers and TV channels have continued (with a subtle mocking undercurrent) to refer to him as ?the world?s best batsman? in reports, long after that label ceased to be true ? using it to repeatedly pull him down and gloat over his failures. Whenever India suffers an embarrassing loss, don?t we all know what photographs we?ll see blown up on the front page of every newspaper the next day? Tendulkar getting out bowled. (Admittedly, that is an enticing photo option, especially when he?s down on his haunches.) Tendulkar walking forlornly back to the pavilion, a huddle of excited opposition players in the background. A beaten/dispirited Tendulkar, used as a symbol of our supposed National Failure. The Man Who Let Us All Down. Once again. And when he plays a good innings in the next match, every TV channel will dig up at least one idiot ex-cricketer (Kris Srikkanth, anyone?) who?s willing to come and say something like ?see, this is why he is the best batsman since Bradman?. And the cycle is perpetuated all over again. There?s also the persistence of the ridiculous hype around ?Tendulkar and Lara, the two best players in the world?. To anyone who actually knows their cricket, this idea has been irrelevant for years. In the last 3-4 seasons Lara has performed much better than Sachin has (and equally importantly, avoided injuries better), but even he hasn?t consistently been among the top 3 batsmen in the world during this period. And yet the media continues to sustain this grand, 10-year-old fantasy of ?Tendulkar vs Lara? and fans continue to fall for it. (I can?t help wondering what youngsters aged 12-13 or less must make of this hype, since they wouldn?t have seen either of these greats back when they were indisputably the best batsmen around.) From a selfish point of view, as a Tendulkar loyalist, I wouldn?t at all mind seeing him removed from the team. Apart from sparing him further humiliation, it would (at least temporarily, till a new icon is found, built up and torn to pieces) end this malicious voyeurism we see every time a hero fails. It would also force our indolent, feeble-brained sports-page editors and reporters to find new clich?s for their match reports (instead of the sneering ?once again, the world?s best batsman failed when his team needed him the most?) and to look for new photo options for the front page when India next suffers a humiliating and unexpected loss. And rest assured, the humiliating losses will continue, even after this ?non-performing, overrated, national disappointment? has been ejected from the team: for if 75 years of Indian cricket history has taught us anything, it?s that this country, for whatever deep-rooted reason, is never going to produce a team of consistent world beaters like the Australians, or the West Indians of the 1970s and 1980s, or even the South Africans. Maybe there?s something to the idea that the national character just isn?t suited to a high level of sporting achievement. (Did I say ?world beaters?? Sorry! This is a sport that only 8 or 9 countries play with any measure of seriousness ? and moderate success in it somehow becomes a salve for all our frustrations and personal disappointments. Maybe we?re just a nation of masochists.) ---------------------------- How many of you disagree with him?

Thanks for sharing that Chandan. It's a fantastic summary of Tendulkar's relationship with fans and media. This is the crux of the whole issue:

As I?ve said before, back in 1989 when that 16-year-old kid walked into the Indian squad, he did NOT sign a pledge to the entire Indian populace that he would be The World?s Best Batsman and the sole repository of all their hopes and ambitions for the next 20 years, and that those were the only terms on which he would play cricket.