Here's why Patil should be asking Tendulkar about retirement

Even if reports in the media suggesting that Sachin Tendulkar has been given an ultimatum of sorts by the National Selection Committee post his world record 200th Test in November is true, was it wrong on chief selector Sandeep Patil’s part to do so?

The fact remains that retirement is imminent for the batting great, who will complete 24 years on the Test stage when the West Indies visit for the two-Test series that was hastily arranged by the Indian cricket board to celebrate the 40-year-old’s landmark outing at home.

When, is the big question. Obviously, it is an emotional one in cricket-crazy India, and naturally several former players, especially those who have played alongside the game’s most decorated batsman, would prefer to argue that it should be on Tendulkar’s own terms as a mark of respect to his achievements.

But, is that how it should be?

A report in The Indian Express said Patil had told Tendulkar that post his 200th Test, it would be his form and not his past record that would matter when selectors pick the team for future Tests. The chief selector, understandably, has denied that this conversation ever took place.

Even if Patil did, was he asking for too much of Tendulkar?

For all his achievements, Tendulkar’s previous Test century was in Cape Town in January 2011 and in the last 10 Tests – after stalwarts Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had retired following India’s disastrous Test tour of Australia – he has scored 367 runs from 16 innings at an average of 24.46, with two fifties.

Clearly, not the stats that will book him a place in the Test team on form alone.

Ultimatums are a recent trend in Indian cricket that once witnessed young and fiery Javagal Srinath wait on patiently as Kapil Dev on the wane was given the long rope to surpass Richard Hadlee’s then world record for the most number of Test wickets.

Sourav Ganguly, after having staged a remarkable comeback into the Test team, was sounded out by the selectors ahead of his final Test series against Australia in 2008 that it would be his last.

“Just one last thing lads, before I leave, I just want to say that this is going to be my last series,” Ganguly said after taking the last question of his press conference ahead of the first Test in Bangalore.

“I’ve decided to quit. I told my team-mates before coming here.” Ganguly didn’t have a change of mind after scoring a century in the second Test in Mohali.

Tendulkar, who has already retired from the overs-limit format of the game, is the last man left from what was once India’s famed and feared middle-order that set up several spectacular Test victories.

Indian cricket will need to prepare for a life after Tendulkar and there are talented, young batsmen like Rohit Sharma, among others, waiting for a look-in. And if now is the time, and Tendulkar needs to be told to make way, maybe it is not wrong.