It started off with Kapil Dev saying that Sachin Tendulkar should quit one-day internationals. Another skipper Sunil Gavaskar joined in the debate and said that the selectors need to talk to Tendulkar about his future. But perhaps the unkindest cut of all was when Sourav Ganguly, with whom Tendulkar has played a lot of cricket, questioned the master batsman’s place in the side.
“Sachin has to ask himself whether he is good enough to play one-day cricket day in and day out; whether it’s helping him missing tournaments and playing a one-day series after eight-nine months,” Ganguly told Headlines Today. “… whether it’s helping him as a one-day player or if it’s helping the Indian one-day team. If Sachin can’t get an answer to these questions, he has to go.”
Is Tendulkar's time in ODIs finished? AFP
However, Ganguly doesn’t expect the Indian selection panel led by Kris Srikkanth to go up to Tendulkar and tell him his time is up.
“I don’t see any of the selectors stepping in,” Ganguly said. “They are not going to stand in front of Sachin Tendulkar and say ‘Listen little champ, you need to go’. That is never going to happen.”
Gavaskar, on NDTV, had said Srikkanth, might just be the right man for the job considering that he was Tendulkar’s first skipper in international cricket.
“I think Srikkanth can do it. He was Tendulkar’s first captain,” Gavaskar said. “Tendulkar made his debut under him and today Srikkanth is the chairman of selectors. If his selection committee feels Sachin has no one-day future, then Srikkanth is just the right man to tell Sachin that.”
But that will be easier said than done.
Ganguly had even a few words of advice for the embattled Dhoni… mainly, he needs to stop thinking so far ahead. You can’t plan for 2015 in 2012.
“Every captain will feel that this player is more talented than the other. The point is he is too stuck on someone for too long because of his mindset. [Suresh] Raina has to go but the problem with Dhoni is that he is thinking too far ahead: the 2015 World Cup.
“I bet if Raina doesn’t improve his technique then he is going to struggle in the 2015 World Cup in Australia. People are going to bounce him out. Nobody is going to pitch the ball up to him.”
