It has come to this. The chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil, after seeking “clarification” from the BCCI chief N Srinivasan (wasn’t Mr. Dalmia in this job?), spoke to Sachin Tendulkar about his future in the Test team. The way the Indian Express paraphrases it, Patil told Tendulkar that after his 200th Test, the selectors would only consider his form and not his past record when they consider him for selection to the Test team. The sources include one national selector (who is almost certainly not Sandeep Patil). The story quotes the selector saying
“We have got a bunch of youngsters and they all have been performing well. No one can question Tendulkar. What he has done is remarkable but we also have to look at the future. We have several talented players waiting to get one chance to prove themselves,”
Sandeep Patil has denied that he had this conversation with Tendulkar in an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN. The story quotes Mr. Patil:
“I have not spoken or discussed anything related to his 200th Test or his retirement. The news reports on Tendulkar are baseless,”
The story by Devendra Pandey made it to the front page above the fold in today’s Indian Express in all their major national editions. It is unlikely that quote from the selector was fabricated. Pandey’s story also reports that before this most recent meeting, Patil last met Tendulkar in December 2012, when the team for the ODI series against Pakistan was being picked.
The last time Patil spoke to Tendulkar was on the eve of the ODI selection for the Pakistan series in December. Patil is said to have made it clear that Tendulkar had outlived his ODI career, and that they could not guarantee him a place, especially keeping the 2015 World Cup in mind.
The message of the story is clear. That the chairman of selectors has laid down the law in the past, and has now done so again. Except, that in this case, the chairman of selectors has denied having done so.
I have been puzzled by Tendulkar’s approach in these last few years. It is not clear why he continued to play Test cricket after the series in Australia in 2011-12. There were no difficult challenges on the horizon, only home Tests against New Zealand, England and Australia. I am not persuaded by the standard issue reasons for Tendulkar continuing to play. He probably doesn’t need the money. The rigors of touring are not too much for him either. He plays the IPL after all, which, on a balls faced per airline miles logged measure, is probably the most tiring tournament in cricket history.
The simplest explanation seems most persuasive to me. It requires questioning the way the problem is posed. “Why does he continue to play”. He continues to play because he wants to play. At one level, it is probably true that the great players have a burning goal – winning something specific somewhere. But more basically, they want to play. For freak players like Tendulkar, this obsession probably runs deeper than most.
Tendulkar retired from the IPL after the 2013 edition which Tendulkar’s team won. At the time he said “I am 40. I have to accept the reality. I had decided that this would be my last season. It has ended perfectly.”
Test Cricket is far more strenuous than an IPL game. It requires longer periods of concentration and more physical endurance both in the field and with the bat. Logically, if Tendulkar feels that 40 is too old to be playing a class of cricket lower than the highest level (the vast majority of IPL players wouldn’t get anywhere near a Test team), then surely, it is well past the age when he should be playing Test Cricket.
Lets leave the question of what Tendulkar wants aside. Should he, who has built his career on exacting standards and more consistency than most top players manage in significantly shorter careers, subject himself to this to and fro between the selectors? Every cricketer’s position should be open to debate within the selection committee. There should also be differences, even serious, irreducible differences between selectors. I would be very suspicious of a selection committee in which all the selectors agreed about everything. But after 198 Tests, it is sad that Tendulkar’s position in the Test team has come to this – a situation in which selectors are unable to keep their discussions private, in all probably because they fear the backlash, both within the BCCI and beyond, if they make a particular choice. It is not even the case that dropping Tendulkar will be overwhelmingly unpopular. But it is a question which polarizes.
Does he really want to play 2 more home Tests against a weak Test team? Both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman retired between Test series. Tendulkar should retire from international cricket this week and put the national selectors out of their misery. Does he really want the end of his great career as a Test player to be mired in the BCCI’s petty squabbles with Haroon Lorgat and other myopic matters? He owes this to himself and to the standards he has set on the field over the past 23 years.
I hope he quits this week. But I doubt that he will.
