The former Pakistan captain said that Sachin Tendulkar should have retired after the “ultimate high” of India winning the World Cup last year.
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan said that Sachin Tendulkar should have retired after the “ultimate high” of India winning the World Cup last year.
“We all want to go with a big bang, but you don’t always get it right. For Sachin, the ultimate time to go was after that World Cup win. He had such a great World Cup. He is a great player and there is not replacement for him,” Khan said on Monday.
“He has to decide for himself and he must time it right. You don’t want to go having lost to Australia 4-0. If he had gone after that World Cup, that would have been the ultimate high,” he said.
Khan said India’s senior players have the right to decide when they want to retire and the management should first find their replacements. “It’s a very difficult question for a sportsman to know when to leave. It’s a very difficult decision and many great players have not got it right,” he said. “For Indian cricket, it’s not one player now but three or four have to take decision. But the big question is whether you have got their replacements. If the gap between the young and old players is too much, then you have to stay with the old players,” Khan added.
Asked about Tendulkar’s impending 100th international century, Khan said statistics doesn’t matter to a great player. “Records must be broken with the team winning. You should not be playing to break records. Records should be part of the win. Sachin is a great player. Would Sachin any different if he doesn’t get 100 hundreds? No,” Khan said.
“The greatest player I’ve played (against) is Viv Richards. I don’t need to look at his records. He is great because he loves challenges. Records are after all statistics and statistics do not matter to great players,” he said.
The former fast bowler said he would have hung up his boots had his team suffered two successive whitewashes. “I would have retired from cricket. I think if I was in a team that lost eight matches in a row I would have given up cricket. It’s not the West Indies of the 1980s. But see who India have lost to — Australia and England. This Australia team hardly has won any series. You can’t blame the fans for feeling upset,” he said.
Khan said if India laid too much emphasis on Twenty20 cricket and IPL, then they might be reduced to a “walkover team in Test cricket”. “India need to think seriously. Have they laid too much emphasis on IPL, T20 cricket? It’s a great entertainment but how do you compare T20 with Test cricket. Test cricket is the ultimate test of a player’s skills,” he said. “If India don’t get the balance right, they are going to be just a walkover team in Test cricket,” Khan added.
Khan also said that India and Pakistan must resume cricketing ties. “We have deprived the subcontinent of the pleasure of an Indo-Pak series. The highlight of the World Cup was the semifinal between Pakistan and India. Let’s put our past behind and move on. It’s time for a new relationship and a new era. We must go beyond Mumbai 26/11. Everybody in Pakistan condemned the person (Ajmal Kasab) and the Mumbai incident. Even in Pakistan, thousands have died in terrorist attacks. It’s time for new relationships and to resume Indo-Pak ties,” Khan said.
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