Let Sachin decide when he will retire

It’s unfair to expect Sachin Tendulkar to get off the cricket treadmill. It’s a dizzying ride once you are on it and it’s not possible to say - “Stop, I want to get off!” This is no merry-go-round in some children’s playground and we are talking about the world’s best-known cricketer whose presence still adds value to the game even if he is not quite the champion performer with the bat he was in the flush of youth.

If Sachin has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha it’s because India is chasing his celebrity status and not the other way around. And his presence in the Upper House when no cricket is going on might ensure better attendance since some of our notorious politicians might even come to Parliament if there is a celebrity like him around.

Cricket is a cruel master and the ravages of age do not spare anyone. However, if a batsman at his age is still at it helping win matches - as seen most recently even in T20 cricket for Mumbai Indians against IPL defending champions Chennai Super Kings - we would not dare nominate the day on which such a man should call time on his career.

Out in Australia, which I had a chance of visiting recently en route home from out even further east, they revere him. He is seen as a champion athlete who gives of his best even if that best these days is somewhat lesser by his own exalted standards. Such hero worship was one reason why they were so baffled by the little master’s silence throughout the tour.

This strange silence got so bad at one stage that it was being suggested widely in cricket circles that Sachin be made ‘Man of the Match’ in some game so that he would be forced to talk to the interviewer after receiving the prize. This was one way to break his vow of silence. But then his form was so miserable after one smart looking near-century that it would have been a real stretch to pick him for the match award.

There was a strong feeling that he could be on his last tour Down Under and hence owed something to the nation that appreciated him so much throughout his career. The expectation that Sachin would speak extensively on the opponents against whom he shone the most and with whom he liked to compete was sadly belied.

The little master was under intense pressure on the tour, more so because he was one shy of the century of centuries that continued to elude him. He would have dearly loved to have the Australians at the receiving end of a special century but that was not to be because he was in kind of form to exert his influence as he used to in games against them.

The least he could have done was to say a few words Down Under. He could have obviated this sense of hurt in people who had rated him the best competitor. He began as the boy wonder who stood up to the Aussies on his first tour there in 1992 before blossoming into the world beater who made the most number of Test hundreds against the top-rated side and also most number of runs (3,438) out of his princely collection of 15,470. He also made nine of his 49 ODI hundreds against them, the highest by him against any country.

There is no knowing if he will ever go back to Australia since the next World Cup seems a bridge too far. If he does beat the odds he would still be welcomed Down Under as a great champion. That is the power of Sachin and it’s hardly right that critics should try to determine when he should call it a day.