The day Ricky Ponting retired from ODI cricket there was discussion on Indian news TV channels whether Sachin Tendulkar should retire. Before that during the Test series there was talk whether senior cricketers should retire.
It is for cricketers to decide when they want to retire and for selectors to decide who should be in the team. A cricketer does not retire does not mean he continues in the team. Selectors have dropped players who did not perform well. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh have been in and out of the team. Rahul Dravid was dropped from ODIs. Sourav Ganguly was dropped as captain and player after winning Test series in Zimbabwe. It is wrong to say Kapil Dev by not retiring two years early delayed Srinath’s entry. If Kapil Dev was not good selectors would have dropped him. The argument that senior cricketers by not retiring block chances of young cricketers is not correct.
India lost eight Tests in succession abroad and some talk how after Sourav Ganguly there has been no proper No. 6 batsman or how Anil Kumble used to tie up one end.
Ricky Ponting was dropped from ODI team after he scored 18 runs in five ODIs and it was made clear he will not be selected to ODIs so he retired. Sachin Tendulkar is not dropped. He has scored 87 runs in four ODIs. Rahul Dravid and V. V. S. Laxman are not in ODI team. It is for them to decide when they want to retire from Tests. Selectors will do their job.
Which expereicned player did sachin replace when he got an entry in the team at the age of 16? His initial innings are 0,0,36,10,20, 19, 31,36///u can find many , even better than him whose initial innigs are like this.Pure reason he was given chance at 16 was his backing from marathi power. We have Vineet saxena who hit a double ton recently in ranji finals, did u hear his name? we had a bowler who bowled out entire team for 18 runs in ranji, did u hear his name. why virat wasnt picked at 16 – do u think he was not playing then and he started playing at 18? why someone like dhoni was not got into team till 26 , although he is a batsman, wicket keeper and captain and led us to world cup. so what r u telling..only thing some people in our country have a narrow mindset of regionalism and thats why u see tendulkar being projected as a super hero from day 1..ttruth is bitter but it is. his fans reply to everyone with dirty words, uselsess arguments like what have u done in ur life or do u knwo cricekt, they criticise selfless players like Kapil, harbhajan, dhoni , amarnath etc..but that just frustration