[travelwriter]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Some people ... movie actor

One thing Sachin excelled at was handling the pressure that our Indians put him under. Kudos to that. Just imagine if I had been face to face with our friend here....!

Mallumowgli, you are talking like Bagheera and making me feel like Mowgli (of the story of yore, I mean. Now don't go taking this personally as well).

Just chill, buddy. I am amongst those 12 lakh experts just as you are.

[mayuresh]

It's time we salute the maestro for whatever he has done for Indian cricket relentlessly for more than two decades ...

Everyone may have an opinion about the timing of retirement. But now it's time we talk stalk of the marathon career of the legend than spending our energies talking about the timing of retirement and all.

A video where Siddhu shares his experiences in his hilarious style, of Sachin's debut tour to Pakistan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFWhSHWKom8

[joe1980]

A career spawning over two decades has come to an end. This man has played for the nation. Salute to the little master, master blaster. Not sure if there is someone alive to break all the records he has created.

[NMS]

Finally the Genius decides to hang his boots !! While this was much awaited, it still feels as bad to see him go :(
How I wish we could see one last Annihilation of a bowling attack by SRT. One last lofted shot over the bowlers head, one last paddle sweep, on last cover drive (the one that could beat the ferrari to the quarter mile ) , One last inside out shot !! The flick off the pads, the cracking shots over the point, the ever so dashing late cut and ohh the master stroke, The Straight Drive. Just one last time SRT.

Its been amazing as to how a man without saying much has influenced our lives so much. The centuries that have had all of secular India celebrating as if it were a National festival !!

Still hope so see some awesome batting display during the upcoming tests !!

Thank You for giving Billion people a 100 reasons and beyond to smile !!

Yaar itna bura to Final Year ki ATKT mein nahi laga tha, jitna Laxman, Dravid and SRT ke retirement pe laga !!

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

weird you would stop watching a game you love because one person left the game. true MJs and Rajinis of the world bring forth such adulation amongst fans but one does not stop listening to music after MJ died or stop watching movies after Rajini stops making movies.

Let the game always stay above individuals no matter how great they were/are. Otherwise the game can only suffer. Especially in team sports like cricket.

I ain't no cricket fan. But this Tnedulkar retire-don't retire issue is too good to pass for someone on the sidelines.

The game has changed from what it used to be, and the end result is not to my liking. To me, SRT represented the best of the old game. Now, with his retirement (along with many others from his generation), the game is left mostly with baseball-hitters.

When you judge from the sidelines, cricket still is cricket. But when you really follow the game, you'd know that the game is not what it used to be 15 years or so ago.

Outside of team Bhp, a car is just a car. We classify it in a thousand ways, don't we?

Anyways, I have left the game completely for the past year or so, and like I said earlier- the last game I enjoyed was his 200.

[jayguar]

My dad does not like cricket. He does watch cricket only when Sachin bats.

[amalji]

Originally Posted by travelwriter

One thing Sachin excelled at was handling the pressure that our Indians put him under. Kudos to that. Just imagine if I had been face to face with our friend here....!

True, except that it was not the "One thing", but one among the many things that he excelled at.

Originally Posted by mayuresh

A video where Siddhu shares his experiences in his hilarious style, of Sachin's debut tour to Pakistan.

Thanks for sharing this. Sidhu's narration style is unique.
PS: Sachin did not go down as what Sidhu told. It was a bit of exaggeration there. Here is video of that -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5j7dIWhDpM

Originally Posted by NMS

How I wish we could see one last Annihilation of a bowling attack by SRT. One last lofted shot over the bowlers head, one last paddle sweep, on last cover drive (the one that could beat the ferrari to the quarter mile ) , One last inside out shot !! The flick off the pads, the cracking shots over the point, the ever so dashing late cut and ohh the master stroke, The Straight Drive. Just one last time SRT.

Wait till the next IPL. That might be his final IPL.
And the cover drives, and flick of the pads, and even a lofted shot over midwicket or long off, we should be able to see in the next test series against the Aussies.

Originally Posted by NMS

Its been amazing as to how a man without saying much has influenced our lives so much. The centuries that have had all of secular India celebrating as if it were a National festival !!
Thank You for giving Billion people a 100 reasons and beyond to smile !!
Yaar itna bura to Final Year ki ATKT mein nahi laga tha, jitna Laxman, Dravid and SRT ke retirement pe laga !!

Can relate to those feelings very easily.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The game has changed from what it used to be, and the end result is not to my liking. To me, SRT represented the best of the old game. Now, with his retirement (along with many others from his generation), the game is left mostly with baseball-hitters.
When you judge from the sidelines, cricket still is cricket. But when you really follow the game, you'd know that the game is not what it used to be 15 years or so ago.

Exactly, the game has changed a lot. Great bowlers are a rarity now. And the contest between bat and ball comes in rarely. Batsmen these days get out due to their mistake (mostly) rather than the bowlers planning them out.

Originally Posted by jayguar

My dad does not like cricket. He does watch cricket only when Sachin bats.

It was the same with my grand mother ( late ) as well. She would watch cricket only to see the innocent smile on Sachin Tendulkar's face.

Originally Posted by Omtoatom

Late or whatever guys, that is 23 years of blood, sweat and toil right there! Lesser mortals would've long since gotten buried six feet under from the sheer weight of expectations of a billion Indians. It sure must've been one heck of a back-breaking job to do over two decades and then some!

It was easy for him to take that retirement decision right after the world cup win. But, he played the game not just for a single moment or for the grand exit. He played it for the love of the game. If money was the only thing, he never had to toil for 5 days of a test match at the age of 39, when he could have easily earned 10 times that money by playing a single T20 match anywhere in the world. He backed himself to come back to form. And he backed himself to play for India in the world cup yet again. And it's fair to say that India's performance in all the world cups after Sachin started playing was directly proportional to the personal form of Sachin Tendulkar - the batsman.

But, time had its last laugh, and hence he had to accept that he won't be fit ( or capable ) enough for the next world cup. Salute the master. You are one of a kind. It's not just the personal batting contributions, but you inspired people like Sehwag to bat the way he does now.

Ending the post with a nice video of Sehwag telling a story about his dual with Shoaib Akthar. -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM3OR6R5xEc

[honeybee]

There are so many aspects of Tendulkar's career that we possibly might not be able to describe all of them here, heck, we don't even understand half of what he is. All we have is his public displays on the field of cricket.

Keeping that in mind, there is no doubt that he is one of a kind. Also there is no doubt that if you were to compare the match-winning knocks, he might not have as many as some of the other batsmen (Steve Waugh is one name that comes to mind). So while individually he has scaled peak after peak and entertained us with his mastery of the game (not just the bat, but the ball, fielding as well as inspiring a team), it would have been wrong to expect him to bail the team out every time.

On thinking over the past, it might not have been right to burden him with the captaincy, and he should have been left to his own devices, without any pressures, so he could play his natural game. However the past is gone.

At this age and point, when the game of cricket is changing (thanks to T20) and when age has started dominating over his will to play, it really would have been wiser to retire right after the world cup win. To look at it objectively, even if he played on for another year or two, he might not even end up with the distinction of being the oldest player to play an international test. So what's left to achieve?

Since the world cup win, he hasn't shown the same form, his footwork isn't always good and overall you can see he is struggling with the physical as well as the mental pressure. It's the temptation to carry on, and our typical Indian mentality of treating him like a God, which prolonged the retirement to such a stage where people have started asking why so late.

I am sure the Tendulkar-bashers (I don't even know if that's the right word) are deep inside aware of what he has contributed to cricket. He is unique in the way he played the game, his dominance over the bowling, his technique. However that uniqueness has been fading. So instead of getting into personal attacks over someone who criticizes Tendulkar for deciding to retire at this point and not earlier, we all must understand that he is loved by one and all for what he has contributed to cricket. However opinions will still be divided over the timing.

I have stopped watching cricket as a fan many years back, but I did watch Tendulkar in his younger years. I watched his match against Pakistan when he lifted Qadir out of the stadium on the slightest provocation from the bowler. I am sure everybody here has. However I do feel he delayed the retirement a tad longer.

[pganapathy]

No doubt tendu was an absolutely brilliant batsman in his prime and in form. I respect his achievements and the grace he exhibited when playing under pressure of needing to please a billion Indians.

I will say that he retired about one or two seasons too late. He really should have let winning the world cup be his swansong. Even at that point it was obvious that the mind was willing but the body was unable. It really is sad to watch a once brilliant athlete unable to accept that the ravages of time have stopped what was one automatic and instinctive. The impression it gives is of a person playing on for money and records only.

Hopefully the reduction in his workload will help prolong and improve his test career. I really feel that he is better off retiring if he cannot play at the level he could.

[carboy]

As per the ICC rankings, Tendulkar is still the highest ranked Indian test batsman at #22.

SRT at #22
Sehwag is at #25.
Pujara is at #26.
Gambhir is at #35.
Kohli at #37
Dhoni at #38
Ashwin is at #49
Yuvraj is at #72
Raina is at #83.

Kohli & Pujara are excused because they are relatively new & the algorithm takes some time to push new people up.

The main reason that SRT should retire from Test Cricket because he is hiding the failures of the some of the worthies like Sehwag and Gambhir. Otherwise Sehwag and Gambhir would have been dropped and we could have blooded some more youngsters - we have wasted years on the yuseless Yuvraj and Raina.

Sehwag's record in the last few years outside of Indian flat tracks

India in South Africa - Ave 24.
India in England - Ave 10.55
India in Australia - Ave 24.75

Tendulkar in these same series
India in South Africa - Ave 81.50
India in England - Ave 34.12
India in Australia - Ave 35.87

[HammerHead]

Finally media will give some importance to other sports!!
He ruled Indian sports scene for last 24 years. People may have different views but he is the only one treated with respect, on and off the field.

IMO he should have call it a day, the day we won World Cup! He missed the golden opportunity.

[shankar.balan]

Just a query and submission.

How many matches in all different formats and types did Don Bradman, Viv Richards, Gavaskar and others play in total each and how many runs in total did each of them score vis a vis SRT?

While I don't want to take away anything from SRT I believe he probably must have played a lot more cricket overall in the last 23 years than the others named above did in their entire lives.

[mac187]

Originally Posted by faustus77

A stray thought:
There was some talk of his not being selected.He preempted the selectors.Does it reek of a deal?I dont know.Curious why today when the selectors are meeting.2/3 days back he was available for selection.

+1

The timing of the retirement made me wonder, was he asked to retire rather than face the axe or did he just preempt the selectors?

Also it makes me wonder such a celebrated sportsman of India, does he deserve a decent farewell match? Its bad that Dravid and Laxman didnt get one, now Sachin too doesn't get a farewell match! Is it just that we dont have the culture to celebrate sportsman like other countries like Aus, Eng etc.

Timeline leading to the retirement
22 Dec
http://cricket.yahoo.com/news/sachin...064021240.html

23 Dec
Just one hour before the team was to be picked. He annouces retirement.

[Eddy]

Something interesting....

-41 crore new Indians have been born during Sachin's long career, taking the country's population to 126 crore, a whopping 48% increase.

-We were struggling as a nation when he came to power (yes, cricket has became a power in India). Our foreign reserves were at 5.83 billion dollars, Now at 280 billion dollars (become 48 times).

-Sensex has reached from 1050 to 18600

-Sachin was the 74th Indian to wear the ODI cap. Now we have 275, added 200 during his career. More than 70% of new additions have already retired.

-@ World Cups he has been more prolific than anywhere else, his total tally at WCs (2278 RUns) is 30.6% grreater than his closest and arch rival Ricky Ponting (1743 runs). And if you think he has played more, he has played 1 match less than Ponting in WCs. He has also hit 6 centuries and 21 Half tons.

-Sachin's runs in WCs are more than any other player's (Ok we all know that), but what's mpre exciting is that his runs scored in WCs is greater than runs scored by as many as 8 test playing teams.

Source : http://timesofindia.speakingtree.in/...figures-128696

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Sachin's runs in WCs are more than any other player's (Ok we all know that), but what's mpre exciting is that his runs scored in WCs is greater than runs scored by as many as 8 test playing teams.

It's highly unlikely this is true or it means something totally different than what I think it means.