Happy Birthday Sachin Tendulkar. You have done a fantastic job entertaining millions over past 2 decades. But please retire now from all forms of the game — except IPL.
When it came to retirement of players like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid it was an easier decision as their performance went down significantly from their peak. There was lot of external pressure and internal doubts. No such thing with Sachin. While he is nowhere near his peak, his off-peak performance is much better than many who are currently playing the game. Many cricket lovers would consider asking Sachin to retire now as blasphemy.
Sachin should retire now especially when he is near the top of his game. It will be several decades — possibly never — before someone can better some of his records. 22 years is a long time to play the game. In a country of over a billion, where cricket is a passion for many millions, where they is so much talent (as shown by IPL which is a great platform for youngsters to perform and impress selectors), there are only 16 slots. It is time Sachin vacated his reserved slot so that the likes of Rayudu, Valthathy, Sharma, Tiwari etc get a chance to play and entertain.
Master blaster, time to blast off into the sunset in your Ferrari.