‘Sachin will know when to call it a day’

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I met this young man in 2000 on the first trip to Kenya for the Champions Trophy and the first impression left a lasting one.

An young man with immense talent, like an uncut diamond waiting to be polished. He had an attitude of ‘bring them on and will see’ and this was infact the attitude of the new wave of Indian cricket, waiting to unfold itself in the new century. I have many fond memories of Yuvraj Singh and when he takes the field on Saturday in the first T-20 match against New Zealand for a fresh guard on the cricket field all my blessings will be with him. It will be a celebration of life with Yuvraj. He has been instrumental in winning the T-20 world cup for his country, he has been the Most-Valuable-Player in the 2011 world cup but on Saturday Yuvraj will symbolize victory of life. There has been divided thoughts about his return to the cricket ground. People who love him and his ability have shared their anxiety about whether it has been a hurried return. I will look at Yuvraj as somebody who has conquered cancer and is all set to send out the message to all, that you indeed need to celebrate life.
Besides him there is one more person who is been hugely talked about currently in Indian cricket. Well, he has been talked about for more than two decades now but this time it has been a bit different for Sachin. Living with the word “retirement” hanging over your head is an unwanted burden you carry when you continue to play into your late thirties. From personal experience, I remember battling away trying to grind out a few more runs; I finally threw the towel in at the sprightly age of thirty eight but for the three years before that every season seemed to be greeted or farewell-ed with articles or commentary circling around topics like ‘we might have seen the last of him’ or ‘it’s time for him to go.’ This was in New Zealand, so in India multiply those numbers of articles/ comments by at least a few hundred or so.
Any failure — and in my case there were a few — was greeted by this all-knowing and wise commentary from most kind, others most downright disdainful. The big difference to me was that in previous years, those lean days had seemed part of the show. In truth, to a cricketer, those articles and comments are nothing more than a distraction.

Or in Kiwi slang just a pain in the proverbial! Retirement is such a personal thing. You’ve played and fought for your team and country with every sinew and ounce of effort, with pride and determination for all so many years. Through good times and the bad, through personal triumphs and milestones and meet with those two impostors, victory and defeat, almost on a daily basis.
For any champion those inner drivers are your constant companions throughout your career. They are with you at the start and they remain till the end. Through self-analysis and critique, it is these basic tools that will automatically begin to weigh upon a champion’s mind. And help him reach a decision. You know when you are not loving the game as you did or your performances are not meeting the standards you have set yourself. So the decision to retire becomes almost obvious and simple and the natural thing to do.
Maybe for me it’s difficult to be objective in the case I am talking about. I worked alongside Sachin as head coach for nearly five years. But I don’t care a hoot that he has been bowled 3 out of 4 times. It doesn’t worry me his top score for the series against New Zealand was 27 and average 21. He will know when it is time for him to exit his stage before someone decides to push him off it.
The only thing the selectors and India should be worried about and planning for is this, who is going to replace him?