The game of Sachien

                                                               India's cricket greats have begun talking about a topic that was considered unthinkable a year ago - Sachin Tendulkar's retirement from the sport.                                                               

Or, at least, the need for the record-breaking batsman to quit one-day cricket to prolong his Test career, like former Australian captain RICKY POINTING did this week.

"Maybe his time has come," former World Cup-winning captain Kapildev said of the "Little Master" on the news channel. 

"Every player has his time. Age is not on his side as it was earlier." 

Tendulkar, who turns 39 in April, is not only the world's leading batsman in both the Test and one-day formats, but also the longest-serving international cricketer, having made his debut in 1989.

Fans have been left on tenterhooks as Tendulkar, who has scored a record 51 Test and 48 one-day centuries, struggles to reach the unprecedented milestone of 100 international hundreds.

Tendulkar, who turns 39 in April, is not only the world's leading batsman in both the Test and one-day formats, but also the longest-serving international cricketer, having made his debut in 1989.

Fans have been left on tenterhooks as Tendulkar, who has scored a record 51 Test and 48 one-day centuries, struggles to reach the unprecedented milestone of 100 international hundreds. 

"Sachin has to ask himself whether it's helping him as a one-day player or if it's helping the Indian team," Ganguly told a new channel.

 

"If Sachin can't get an answer to these questions, he has to go."

Tendulkar, who has played a record 458 one-day internationals, has turned out in just 18 ODI matches in the past two years, including nine in India's triumphant World Cup campaign in February-April 2011.

He still managed to record the first ever double-century in ODI- 200 not out against South Africa in February 2010 - and was the star performer in India's World Cup win with 482 runs, second only to Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan's 500.

"It affects everyone's form if Tendulkar keeps coming in and going out of one-day tournaments," Ganguly said. "I said after the World Cup that Sachin needed to look at his one-day career because he had achieved everything in one-day cricket."

Ganguly dismissed batting legend Sunil Gavaskar's suggestion that the selectors should talk to Tendulkar about his one-day future.

"I don't see any of the selectors stepping in," Ganguly said. "They are not going to stand in front of Sachien Tendulkar and say 'Listen little champ, you need to go'. That is never going to happen."

The Indian daily urged former players to lay off Tendulkar, saying the decision to quit or not should be left to him.

"A lot has been said - especially by former sportspersons who themselves stayed on well beyond their use-by date - about Tendulkar's ODI career," the paper wrote.

"Whatever the intentions, these gems of seemingly timely advice are clearly uncalled for. Sachin has served the country with exceptional pride and genius for far too long and he deserves the right to choose his own time of departure."

A poll published by the Times of India on Thursday revealed that 57 percent of 47,000 respondents wanted Tendulkar to quit one-day cricket and 41 percent urged him to continue.

Struggling India 'desperate', says Warner

After helping Australia secure their place in the finals of the one-day cricket series, opening batsman David Warner says he's surprised by how poorly India are playing given the talent in their side.

Warner found some form at the SCG to top score with 68 as Australia romped to a 87-run win over India on Sunday.

Yuvraj tweets good news in cancer fight

Yuvraj Singh's malignant lung tumour is almost out of his system following his first cycle of chemotherapy, the Indian cricketer said on Thursday.

"Got very good news from Dr Lawrence today! The tumour is almost way out of the system," said the 30-year-old on his Twitter account.

Yuvraj was told last year that he had a golf ball-sized non-malignant tumour but that diagnosis was changed this month to a cancerous condition called "mediastinal seminoma".

One of the cleanest strikers of a cricket ball, the middle-order batsman is not a regular member of India's test team but is an automatic choice in their limited-over sides.

Yuvraj was instrumental in India's 2007 World Twenty20 victory in South Africa and hit England fast bowler Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in one match.

He was also named player of the tournament in India's successful 50-over World Cup campaign on home soil in February, March and April last year.

Last month Yuvraj said he was reading Lance Armstrong's 2000 autobiography 'It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life'.

"I'm sure it will motivate me and pull me through," the Indian added.

American cyclist Armstrong is one of sport's best-known cancer survivors.

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Post-record January, auto sales may fall for the 1st instance in 9 years

NEW DELHI: traveler car sales in the country may drop for the first time in nine years this economic in spite of reporting evidence journal sales in January, an industry association said.

Domestic traveler car sales declined 1.19% in the 10 months of April-January to 15.74 lakh units next to 15.93 lakh car sold throughout the similar period last year, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

"If sales don't get better in the next two months, the Indian car market is probable to post its initial fall as 2002-03," its manager general Vishnu Mathur told journalists on Wednesday.

Last month, high reduction offers along with steady interest tax on loans helped sales add to 7.6% to all-time high 196,013 cars, recording the third straight journal increase.

Mathur said sales will require producing at least 12% in the last two months to get the association's newest aim of a 2% growth.
SIAM downgraded its filled economic forecast from 16%-18% in April to 10%-12% in July and to 0%-2% in January.

Foremost the drop is the country's main car maker Maruti Suzuki, which expects to shut the year with a 10-11% refuse in sales, according to Mayank Pareek, organization executive officer for sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki. "We are pregnant to shut the year on unenthusiastic sales," he said.
   

If selectors want I will step down as captain: MS Dhoni

Following India's abysmal performance Down Under, India captain MS Dhoni has been said he is ready to stop down if a suitable replacement is found.

"Captaincy is an additional responsibility that I enjoy. If the selectors feel the need to replace me then I will be happy to step aside," Dhoni was quoted saying by NDTV ahead of India T20 game against Australia.

Under his captaincy, India lost seven consecutive Tests on foreign soil, four of them by an innings and the rest by margins of 196, 319 and 122 runs.

"The need is to find a new captain from beneath the wreckage. Dhoni is no longer the answer in Test cricket," former Australian skipper Ian Chappell had written in one of his columns for a national daily a week ago.

"He has failed dismally to rally the troops in two disastrous overseas campaigns and his own form, not just with the gloves but also with the bat, no longer warrants a guaranteed place in the Test side."

Dhoni made 220 runs in four Tests in England last year at an average of 31.40 and managed just 102 runs in three matches in Australia at 20.40.

Sunil Gavaskar supported Dhoni's retention as Test captain -- but only because there is no suitable replacement.

"At the moment, I can't think of anyone who is good enough to take over from Dhoni,"

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Pakistan vs. England: Jonathan Agnew feature

There are three important values to batting in Test cricket: you require regulation, endurance and method. Unluckily, England's peak order did not relate any of them in the heavy first Test beat against Pakistan.

They just botched to study from their mistakes in the first innings and batted very much the similar way second time round and when your top six batsmen achieve 143 runs between them in a match, the odds are you are leaving to misplace unless the conditions are really hard.

Andrew Strauss's notice for a leg fleeting look to the wicketkeeper may have been contentious, given that replays did not demonstrate obvious contact between bat and ball, but whether he was out or not, it just does not clarify the unfortunate blast assortment that followed.

Kevin Pietersen's caress was terrible and was indicative of England's move toward throughout. It was just a short ball, intentionally bowled, with a man out at bottomless square leg and he hit it directly down his throat.

Alastair Cook's blast was not any better, Ian Bell hasn't got a sign how to play Saeed Ajmal, and though Jonathan Trott played healthy for 49, he then played a very poor stroke to get out.The only three batsmen who played well in this match - Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq and Matt Prior - did it the similar way, by knuckling down, playing directly, playing tolerantly and picking off the runs as and when they could.

You don't play champagne cricket on these pitches, they need a small piece of work to get in, but this has not been a hard pitch.

That would at least allow them to field a second spinner and transport in the option of receiving more lbw decisions through the Decision Review System.

BCCI unlikely to move against senior players

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), though disturbed by the back-to-back setbacks in England and Australia, will refrain from taking a call on the careers of under-performing senior players.

"Whether the seniors should retire or be dropped is something to be decided by the selectors or the players themselves. The board can’t interfere in this matter,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale.

Asked if the Indian Premier League (IPL) was the reason for India not finding youngsters good enough for Test cricket, he said everything can’t be blamed on the IPL. “It has its positives and negatives.”

Admitting that India’s overseas showing has been horrendous of late, he said every team going through a transitional phase has endured such setbacks, including the mighty Australia and England.

“It’s impossible to produce cricketers of the calibre of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. So, these things will happen,” he said, implying that Indians fans should prepare themselves for more agony.

He said some plans to resurrect the plunging fortunes of Indian cricket were on the anvil.

“First and foremost, we are focussing on restructuring domestic cricket  - infrastructure, playing conditions and especially wickets. You can’t expect youngsters who have grown up on Indian wickets to perform on bouncy and seaming wickets all at once. It’s important to prepare good wickets, and the knockouts in the Ranji Trophy this year were played on difficult wickets,” said Jagdale.

“We are waiting for Sourav Ganguly, chairman of the BCCI’s technical committee. We will sit down with him and discuss how to refurbish our domestic cricket,” he said.

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