Shutter down?

Runs have stopped coming, suddenly. The hand-eye co-ordination which enthralled the world for more than 2 decades has suddenly been under scanner. The footwork seems to be missing or doubtful. The head is full of cobwebs that have formed due to constant pressure from media & the so-called pundits asking questions about his retirement. Yet, one thing has been constant. The usual drills and net-sessions. The child-like eagerness to bat. The quest for perfection on already perfect technique. Sachin Tendulkar is yet again in the firing line-up and taking all the blows, this time from his own people who loved him for more than 2 decades.

Is he really past his prime? Has he really started showing signs of age? Is he really such a big-failure that people want him to retire? First of all, who are we to ask him to retire? It's not just about Sachin alone. For that matter, any person from the sports fraternity cannot be asked to retire just because they are not performing. In this matter, there is a system known as BCCI (Selection Committee) which has the rights to do the same. They can very well drop him from his next venture. Why are we crying about it? We are not paying Sachin to perform; we just pay to see him perform. If he is not performing to our "expectations", we have the option of not watching him, be it a stadium ticket or television set. It is upto the selection committee and the captain to play or drop him from the next match/series.

It is obvious that age has been trying to catch up with him. There have been numerous players have played well beyond 40 age and have played reasonably well. The problem with Sachin is different than them. Firstly, he started playing (international matches) at a very tender age of 16. This means, although he is just 39, he still has 23 years of international cricket behind him. He has spent his most important years of life on cricket ground. By doing so, he has gained so many runs and such an experience that has left many of us dumbfounded. But that also means, the bar of expectation has been raised so high that anything below (even if it is a 70-80) is not acceptable to the people. Obviously, a single-digit score would be almost criminal.

In my opinion, there is no problem at all with Sachin's age, technique, reflexes. Talking about reflexes, he still has good reflexes that is seen when he plays his trademark shorts, when he fields. The biggest problem is that, now after all those years, it seems he is getting burdened by the expectations. He probably expects too much from himself, constantly trying to match his own standards. He is at a stage where he should be relaxed and enjoying his game, not thinking about other things, almost like how Sehwag plays. That surely doesn't mean he has to play like Sehwag, but if only he can keep the burden aside, he can play like he did in 2009-10.

He has time-and-again proved that he is human, he gets bogged down when he nears a landmark. He failed miserably when he kept thinking about 10000 Test runs, about getting past Lara's record, about scoring 35th Test century, about scoring 50th Test century & about 100th century. He has to keep all these thoughts aside and stick to what he always says, you should continue to play, records happen alongway. The more he thinks about these thinks, the more he is going to fail. One failure will put more pressure and then second, then third, and so on. The first thing he probably needs to do is to find some psychological help, someone who can help him overcome his anxiety.

The second thing he needs to do is to stop over practicing. Every time he gets out cheaply he heads towards the nets and practices like anything. He has the most perfect technique anyone can have and that has been tried and tested and polished over two decades. He doesn't need to worry about his technique, its all in minds now. He needs to just do the normal drills and net-sessions.

The third thing he needs to do is to stay away from everyone, no matter who he is, former player, current player, media, anyone. He can even go for a small holiday after the test series, relax, freshen up and come back rejuvenated for the ODI series.

As Lara said, he still has a year or so in him. Who knows, the prospect of reaching 200 tests might ignite another spark in the fading light and he will retire on a higher note. Kapil Dev rightly said, he should have retired after World Cup win. But if he hasn't then we just leave it to him. If he underperforms, he can be dropped or rested. But let us stop talking about his retirement. I have seen many people who have been pathetic in playing the game, but they are now so-called experts. One piece of advice, if they were asked to stop playing, they shouldn't take revenge on Sachin.