I'll stick to my job, you stick to yours: Sachin on retirement talk

Sachin Tendulkar may not have been in the best of form lately but the senior Indian batsman on Thursday said that he was not bothered by the opinion of others about his retirement and that he would just stick to his job. “Lots of people have been talking about this question (of retirement). If I remember correctly, this question began in 2005 and it has been continuing since then. But my answer has been I will stick to my job and you stick to your job,” he said at the launch of India’s first e-newspaper. [caption id=“attachment_710854” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Some of Tendulkar’s counter questions to queries prevented the scribes from asking follow-up questions. Reuters[/caption] “It does not affect me,” Tendulkar said when asked whether the constant talk of when he would retire had irritated him or affected his performance. Tendulkar was taking part in a discussion after the launch of the e-newspaper in the presence of minister of communications and information technology, Kapil Sibal, and minister of information and broadcasting Manish Tewari. Tendulkar talked about how media speculated on his 100th international century after he scored his 99th ton during the 2011 World Cup. “It was the media doing all the build-up. I scored my 99th international hundred during the World Cup. You (media) kept quiet during the World Cup, not discussing about my 100th ton as there was the other more important matter of India winning the tournament. After the World Cup there was again this focus on my 100th international ton,” he said. Some of Tendulkar’s counter questions to queries prevented the scribes from asking follow-up questions. Asked if he read newspapers often, Tendulkar shot back, “Main newspaper padhta rahunga to kaun khelega (If I keep on reading newspaper then who will play).” On the question of the likes of former captains Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman giving opinions about him, though not necessarily negative, Tendulkar asked, “You think they were talking wrong things about me?” PTI