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Aussie great says Tendulkar should consider retirement

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell yesterday suggested what millions of Indians had been dreading to hear -- the great Sachin Tendulkar should hang up his boots.

Chappell, whose younger brother Greg could be sacked as India's coach next week following the team's first round exit from the World Cup, said Tendulkar was past his prime and must retire.

"At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics," the senior Chappell wrote in the Mumbai-based Mid-Day newspaper.

"If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately," he said.

Tendulkar, one-day cricket's most successful batsman, could only manage 64 runs in three World Cup matches, falling for seven against Bangladesh and clean bowled for nought against Sri Lanka.

India's stunning loss to Bangladesh and the subsequent defeat by Sri Lanka saw them crash out of the tournament in their worst World Cup performance since 1979.

Ian Chappell said Tendulkar, who turns 34 next month, must decide soon if he wanted to continue or end a brilliant 18-year career that has seen him score a record 35 Test and 41 one-day centuries.

He compared the Indian to another ageing veteran, 37-year-old West Indian captain Brian Lara, who is Test cricket's leading batsman with 11,953 runs from 131 matches.

"When you think that for a decade Lara and Tendulkar went head to head in a wonderful battle of stroke play to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness," Chappell wrote.

Chappell said a string of tennis elbow, back and shoulder injuries in recent years had taken their toll on Tendulkar's batting.

"The Indian has suffered a lot of injuries where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps," he wrote.

"If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question: `Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the best batsman of all?' "It would've answered: `Brian Charles Lara,'" he wrote.

"If he asked that same mirror right now: `Mirror, mirror on the wall, should I retire?'

"The answer would be: `Yes.'"
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