Tendulkar dismisses retirement speculations after smashing 100th international ton

Mar 25, 2012 |

New Delhi

Tags:

Indian master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has said he is not ready to call it a day amid growing speculation about his future after smashing his hundredth international ton.

"I still get goose bumps as I stand with my team-mates when the national anthem is on. I still feel the same passion when I pick up my bat and go out," Tendulkar was quoted, as saying.

Tendulkar said he would quit cricket only when he felt 'a little less passion' for the game.

"Critics haven't taught me my cricket and they don't know what my body and mind are up to. I can tell you that the day I feel a little less passion when I walk out to bat for India, I'll give up the game,” he added.

His statement came after former Indian captain Kapil Dev had talked about Tendulkar's retirement from one-dayers to prolong his Test career, Sport 24 reports.

"Maybe his time has come.Every player has his time. Age is not on his side as it was earlier,” Dev had said.

On whether he thought of quitting one-day cricket after India's World Cup win in 2011, Tendulkar said "such the thought had never occurred" to him.

"A number of my friends have also asked me why I didn't retire from one-day cricket after winning the World Cup, they may well be right. It would indeed have been a grand exit. But...my retirement was a non-issue, really. The World Cup was about India and I had no right to make it an event of my own,” he said.

"Had I announced my retirement soon after winning the trophy, the focus would have shifted from the Cup triumph to my retirement,” he added.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/137006" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-7b3d0bfe1a46dfc808045ccb32fe0975" value="form-7b3d0bfe1a46dfc808045ccb32fe0975" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86062273" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>