You've just got to be good enough: Alec Stewart’s advice for Tendulkar

As Sachin Tendulkar approaches his 40th birthday on April 24, it will just be another milestone to sit alongside the endless chain of records and accolades to have already come his way. Yet it is significant in its own way. Assuming he’s picked to play on the South Africa tour at the end of the year, Tendulkar will become the first Indian playing Test cricket in his 40s since Vinoo Mankad made 21 and 0 against West Indies at the Kotla in 1959. Few players, even specialist batsmen, still warrant selection for their Test side in their fifth decade. The last person since the start of the Millennium to do so was England’s wicket-keeper batsman Alec Stewart. Giving an exclusive interview to Firstpost, Stewart argues there’s no particular secret to playing for your country at such an advanced age. [caption id=“attachment_720475” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Alec Stewart was the last player to play Test cricket past 40. Getty Images[/caption] “You’ve just got to be good enough, whether you’re 20 or 40, to be worth a place in the team. Not a lot changes, you’ve always got to work at your own game and fitness. If you’ve done those things and put in the hard work, and injury-wise you are relatively lucky, you keep playing,” explains the 50-year-old, now an authoritative media pundit. “While you still believe you have a love for the game, and the desire and passion to go out there and make an individual impact in a way that will help the team, then age is just a number – it’s just a unit that expresses your cricketing experience.” Stewart and Tendulkar clashed regularly through the whole of the 1990s and beyond – and the Englishman’s deep respect and admiration for India’s batting genius is evident. “When you evaluate Ryan Giggs, do you look at his birth certificate or do you look at how he’s playing for Manchester United? The same is true of Sachin: Do you pick him because he’s Sachin Tendulkar or because he’s one of the best players in the world? “He’s played for many, many years and you move with the times. You’ve got to make sure the game doesn’t leave you behind, and it certainly hasn’t in Sachin’s case. He still has that aura when he walks out to bat.” If Stewart is prepared to forgive Tendulkar’s recent struggles against English and Australian seamers, then India’s 1983 World Cup hero Kapil Dev isn’t. In fact, even a dramatic return to form wouldn’t dissuade him otherwise. Kapil gave a recent interview in which took the opposite standpoint to Stewart, saying: “Even if he scored three consecutive centuries my thoughts won’t change about him. One has to know that age is not just a number. It doesn’t matter how much passion you have, you cannot stay so long as to block the progress of others. This is not just about Sachin, but life in general.” The debate will be made elsewhere as to whether there is a young Indian batsman more deserving of that middle-order spot, or whether Tendulkar remains an important ally for MS Dhoni in the experience stakes in a battling line-up that has lost Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. As for Stewart, he may have been somewhat fortunate to still be playing for England in his 40s – an untimely injury for his would-be successor James Foster in 2002 eased the selectors’ thinking, though to this day Stewart believes he was the man in possession at the time. It is hard to know just how much Tendulkar is agonising as to when to call it a day on the Test scene. He is likely to be spending his 40th birthday trying to smash boundaries off the Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling attack as the day itself clashes with an IPL fixture. Stewart notes that although the rest of the Mumbai or India dressing room looks up to Tendulkar, the older man can learn off the youngsters too. He adds that he’d be “surprised” if Tendulkar feels a little out of touch with some of the whipper-snappers in their early 20s. What he does concede is that Tendulkar cannot be guaranteed a place in India’s side ad infinitum. “For the player, you put the age thing out of the equation and it’s just about performing. Coaches and selectors do look at age and if performances are starting to drop then they have to look for a contingency plan to replace certain players. “Clearly, the individual – whether it’s Giggs, Tendulkar or someone else – when he retires, he still wants to be a good player so judging the right time to go can be difficult. “He may have a contingency plan, but he has to make a decision when he has had enough and the selectors will know he’s a lot nearer the end of his career than the start of it. It’s about knowing when to go, and still go out as a very fine player.”