Sachin Tendulkar's 6 year long retirement talks become a reality in 2013!

“When will Sachin Tendulkar hang his boots? How long can Tendulkar perpetuate his career without making significant contributions?” And to go with those massive questions, the quotes of Tendulkar’s well-wishers and ex-cricketers, who played with him and against him as, “He has a couple of more years left in him”. Well, you’ve seen it and heard it all. Haven’t you?

Just to remind you, Tendulkar’s retirement talks began way back in 2007, when India bowed out of the cricket world cup in the Caribbean bitterly and Tendulkar himself wasn’t making big runs. And again, retirement talks took centre-stage when India, under MS Dhoni won the coveted world cup trophy in India after 28 long years and Tendulkar was stranded on 99 international hundreds but had completed his ambition of wanting to win a World Cup.

Midst all the hullabaloo and fuss surrounding his career deadline, Tendulkar has gone about his trade in the only way he knows and believes. Finally, we’ve come to that stage when we’re on the brink of witnessing Tendulkar for one last time in a series, specially made to pay tribute to the man, who has been the “symbol of Indian cricket” for 24 years running now.

The cliche “Tendulkar’s last hundred was against South Africa in Cape Town” has been reiterated time and time again in the last couple of years whenever Tendulkar has failed to score runs at the rate people expect him to. But in the meanwhile, Tendulkar has made good contributions, a 76 against England at the same Eden Gardens, a blistering 94 against West Indies at the Wankhede, when the curse of people wanting him to get that 100th international hundred got the better of him and then very recently, an exquisite 81 against Australia at the MAC stadium in Chennai, one of his celebrated venues.

The big question as far as what Tendulkar can do for India and to his own career as well is, how many runs can he score with the bat and the manner in which he can manufacture those runs in his farewell series? Just to mock at the “statistics crazy” Indian cricket followers, Tendulkar still has 163 runs to reach the 16,000 run mark in Test match cricket in possibly 4 Test innings’.

Also, the way he made the above-mentioned half-centuries were all contrasting to each other. The 94 against West Indies at the ground where he will play his 200th Test match was at a quicker rate for Test match standards, scoring at 61.43 runs/100 balls, the 76 against England at Eden Gardens was a subdued knock where he took humongous amount of time to get his eye in and one that was full of deft touches and dabs into the corners, an inning that wasn’t quite Tendulkarish.

The 81 against Australia was an eye-brow raising knock in the Test match at Chennai starting from February 22, 2013. He walked into bat with India in a spot of bother at 12-2, but took the mantle upon himself to stage a counter-attacking knock against the likes of Pattinson, Starc and Peter Siddle, who were all bowling at a good pace. All these 3 innings were significant in their own way and Tendulkar played a part in how the Team benefited from his innings as well.

Tendulkar has done immensely well throughout his career to score so many runs in all forms of the game considering his fan-following, the pressure he has been put under by his overly-expectant fans, his own stature, the bench-mark he has set for himself and so on. We are hearing reports that, Tendulkar is exasperated by CAB’s actions to make this occasion special and the frenzy in and around the Eden Gardens.

So, in the middle of all this, what can we expect out of Tendulkar? A Tendulkar, who goes out there and tries to blaze away from the first ball having achieved everything there is to on a cricket pitch? A Tendulkar, who still wants to play Test match cricket the way it should be? A Tendulkar, who crumbles under intense pressure as he has in the last couple of years and I can just make these questions perennial so to speak.

Let us not do the job of a clairvoyant or a forecaster in trying to predict what Tendulkar could dish us out. Fingers crossed and let our prayers continue for the well-being of Sachin Tendulkar in the upcoming Test matches and life after his cricketing career that has lasted since he was 11 years old. Astonishing!