Legends should retire at the right time

Two icons of Indian Cricket, two pillars. One who is still playing the game, another who retired from international cricket four years back, but never forgets to make it to the IPL. Yes, no need to hold your breath, I’m talking of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Sachin Tendulkar has been carrying the Indian banner since he was 16, and needless to mention, has scaled dizzying heights of achievements which include the milestones of being the only player to have scored a century of centuries, the first ODI player to have scored a double hundred in the limited versions, the first player to have scored 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 and 15,000 runs. Add to that, he is the first Indian to have crossed 11000 runs in Test cricket. And that is extraordinary to say the least.

Sourav is credited by many to be the founder of the modern-day Indian cricket team, a wonderful captain, 5^th highest run-scorer of ODI’s, including the feat of being the 3rd person in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq of Pakistan. Who can forget the aggression that he planted into the Indian team and lifted up the spirits of a handful bunch of young players at a time when the Indian team was marred with controversies of match-fixing scandals? That said and done, do these living legends need to continue with their game after having achieved so much?

Sachin has been quoted umpteen number of times saying he still plays only for the country. I am not someone who would go around yelling that Tendulkar should immediately quit on the ground of his recent performances, but I will justify it with reason why legends like Tendulkar and Ganguly should quit when there’s time. What else does Sachin need to prove? Certainly not his career, even the harshest critic must accept that he is the undisputed ‘God’ of cricket and that it may take a century to produce another Tendulkar. He owns a record of records, and is likely to create one more of appearing in the maximum World Cups in International cricketing history. Tendulkar’s recent performances are alarming at least, idiotic at worst. Let us not bother about what happens in the Champions League T20, or the IPL, but let’s not forget that his last tour to Australia was the only tour to the country where he missed out on scoring even a single century! The last year that saw the old ‘Tendulkar’ was 2010 when he had an impressive test average around 99.5 – the same average that the legendary Don Bradman is attributed to have when he retired. What next – the last time that Tendulkar had scored a test century was two years ago at Cape Town against South Africa. Since that time, the man with a phenomenal career test average of 55 runs, had a dwindling batting average of a mere 35 in 13 test matches with a total of 841 runs! With just six fifties in 26 innings’ – that’s far from impressive for someone who is boasted of as the only man equal to Sir Don Bradman (if not greater). ODI’s – 10 appearances since 2011 WC win, with a total of only 315 runs!

Ask your mind, not your heart – does the Indian team STILL NEED Sachin Tendulkar?

Let it be mentioned here that he had to wait for over a year (370 days; 35 innings’) to reach his hundredth hundred! And what an opponent – of all teams, Bangladesh! Not that he had not faced the likes of Pakistan, Australia or England during this span of time. What more? You have 100 centuries, tons of runs, heaps of mile-stones, hordes of fans and followers – in short you have achieved everything that a cricketer can even dream of achieving! Why tarnish your godly image with such petty matches? You deserve every bit of respect that you get – it’s you who have earned the entire thing right from debuting as the youngest cricketer to being one of the masters of the game! Does one more World Cup really matter to you in front of these records and glories? Was the 2011 World Cup victory not enough and did it not provide you with the ripest time of all to hang up your boots?

On the other side is another cricketing giant, Sourav Ganguly.

The time of his retirement evoked tears among his fans across the globe as theories and rumors ran wild that he was a victim of a conspiracy by the BCCI members. Perhaps Ganguly earned more respect at that time than when he actually played for India. The main drama folded when he started playing regularly in the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders. Little did he remember that he was accused of slow-batting towards the end of his international career itself, and needless to say, a person with slow-batting does not really shine in the sphere of T20 matches where all that matters is your strike-rate, not necessarily runs. A mild 30 of 18 balls is way more precious than a 50 of 49 deliveries. Unfortunately, Dada belonged to the later category – the IPL demanded the former. His IPL averages clearly state the fact – an average of 25 with a strike rate of 107. The best IPL season that he had was in 2010 with a strike-rate of 118 and average of 38. IPL 2012 – average of 18 and strike rate of 99!

And on top of it, he is “undecided” over his IPL future!

Even die-hard fans of Ganguly cannot deny that he is not an IPL-guy. Let’s get over our emotions and accept the fact that he should have hung his boots right after 2010 – he could have avoided the utter humiliation of the 2011 auctions, and could have restrained from making his appearances in 2012 again! As it is, he had badly tarnished his image of the comeback man, he is not the comeback man anymore. We have waited for two IPL seasons to see his comeback after he was ignored at the auctions, but nothing better, if not worse, had happened.

What do these legends want to prove anymore? Ganguly has had a highly illustrious international career ornamented with his aggressive captaincy tactics and ‘building’ Team India, while Tendulkar continues to be the imperial owner of the throne of milestones. And both keep on saying they do not play for money – then what is it exactly that they play for, I wonder!