Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar should have announced retirement from cricket after 2011 World Cup, former Indian skipper Kapil Dev said in a TV interview.
It would have been good if he had retired after the World Cup, or even better, if he had announced retirement before that. He is a cricketer who loves the game more than any of us. There are some people who cannot leave cricket," Kapil said in an interview with ‘Headlines Today’.
Meanwhile, Sachin won the fifth ESPNcricinfo best batting performance award in Tests beating the likes of his compatriot Rahul Dravid and Australian skipper Michael Clarke.
Tendulkar, whose 146 in Cape Town in 2011 came in testing conditions and in the face of some sublime swing bowling by Dale Steyn, became the No. 1 choice of seven jurors out of the 11 who had him in their top three.
The Test batting category had the widest gap between the winner and number two position -- six points separated Tendulkar's innings from Michael Clarke's 151, also scored in Cape Town in the Test in which Australia dismissed South Africa for 96 and were then bowled out in their second innings for 47.
It was Tendulkar's second ESPNcricinfo Award. He had won the ODI batting performance in 2009 for his 175 against Australia in Hyderabad.