Sachin Tendulkar Retires from ODI Cricket God of Cricket Quits One-Dayers Latest News Photos

Sachin Tendulkar Retires from ODI Cricket. God of Cricket Quits One-Dayers. Sachin Tendulkar Latest News. Sachin Tendulkar Photos. Sachin Tendulkar Records. Sachin Tendulkar & Wankhade Stadium.God of Cricket can be no more appearing in ODI’s. Without Sachin Tendulkar we cannot go with ODI’s.Black Day for Indian Cricket(23/12/2012)

GOD of CRICKET Retires:

On the night of April 2, 2011, the Wankhede Stadium was more than a stadium. It was a wall of volume, a tidal wave of noise that began on land and spread towards the Arabian Sea in the West, as India won the World Cup after 28 years.

Then, the figure of Sachin Tendulkar was seen sprinting down from the dressing-room stairs onto the grass. From the other end of the field where we stood - my colleague Nagraj Gollapudi and I, at ground level - Tendulkar was a speck in a surging sea of specks.

Sachin Tendulkar Retires from ODI Internationals

Yet, driven to an insane joy they will probably never experience again, the crowd spotted the speck, one stand at a time. And the noise began to grow larger, as if it had a tangible, physical size. As if the air had expanded to fit in the sound of 40,000 lungs each calling out to Tendulkar, in a joyful sharing. The stadium, it felt, was about to be lifted off its architecturally solid foundations.

This was the last time Sachin Tendulkar played an ODI in India. It was his best of times in the game's short form. Yet he played ten ODIs after the World Cup final, which gave rise to much hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing and plaintive queries of "Why didn't he quit right then?"

The World Cup was Tendulkar's sixth, and his second final turned out to be successful. That would have been the ideal time to wave goodbye to the one-day game, a movie-script-finish, with thunderous music. But he didn't and maybe he will tell us why he didn't quit the ODI game right then. Or maybe he won't.

Sachin Tendulkar Records

For any neutral Tendulkar observer/watcher/analyst, the decision to linger on and retire from ODI cricket 20 months after winning the World Cup must be handled like a DRS-free, 50-50 umpiring decision. Deal with it, buddy. The last 20 months could either be interpreted as Tendulkar's blip or blemish, his private battle against time or his stubborn refusal to surrender one half of his cricketing identity.

With the passing of time, though, the 20 months will pale against the monument created by Tendulkar's ODI career in its studious, raging pursuit. The numbers are formidable - 18,426 runs from 463 matches, 49 centuries, 96 fifties, at an average of 44.83 and a strike rate of 86.23 - and won't be matched. But the reason Tendulkar has become the standard by which batsmen must measure themselves in the limited-overs game requires the imagination to be stretched a little beyond those numbers.

Sachin Tendulkar Retires

"There was a doubt about whether he would play ODI cricket or not. But I am not surprised by his decision. He has done what he thought was right. I don't think there was any pressure of selectors on him. It is his own decision. No one can drop him."
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly

"Actually I am surprised. If he is continuing with international cricket (Tests) then he should have continued with ODI also. We play almost 25 ODIs in a season. It is very important to keep playing international cricket."

In limited-overs cricket, Tendulkar represents reinvention. Of form, of technique, of order, to some extent of the passage of time. His ODI career was crafted with a riotous method in the first half and scientific consistency in the middle. Towards the end, though, there came unexpected abandon. For everyone who thought they had understood Tendulkar and his approach to one-day batting, around the corner there lay surprise.

If statistics can be turned into symbols, Tendulkar's highest score fits all this perfectly: 200 not out, the first double-century in ODIs, scored in his 442nd one-day match, when he was two months short of his 37th birthday. In a sport growing younger and faster, 200 off 147 balls came from the most experienced man in the game.

Tendulkar's surge in ODI cricket - and in India's imagination - had much to do with his constant request to the team manager Ajit Wadekar to allow him to open the innings in 1994. He is believed to have said over and over again, "Give me one chance. One chance." The chance was given and Tendulkar and limited-overs batting and Indian cricket were forever transformed.

The advent of the attacking opener came to public notice at the 1996 World Cup through Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana. Tendulkar did not have an opening partner to match his pace but by the time the 1996 World Cup began, he had played 32 ODIs as an opener, with four centuries and nine fifties, at a strike rate of 94.

He has often spoken of the impact his ODI batting had on his Test career, in improvisation, widening and making flexible the canvas of his strokeplay in both forms. His peak as an ODI batsman was always carbon-dated to Sharjah 1998, particularly as he chose to play the anchor's role at No. 4 for a while. As a returning opener, Tendulkar accumulated scores with consistency and fluency but without the Sharjah aggro. Yet, once past the cricketing dotage of 35, with injuries set aside, Tendulkar the ODI batsman turned up at the top of the order and smashed the clocks.

He won't play the ODI game anymore. His retirement from the short form, whether brought on by an inner voice or a nudge from the selectors, indicates that Tendulkar wants to give his Test match batsmanship another crack, against the Australians next year. It could be his final shot at reinvention.

Tendulkar, Indian emotion, and in the past couple of years some anguished questions, have always travelled together. As he brings his ODI career to a halt, here though are a few less anguished ones. Why didn't Tendulkar lose his way at the age of 25, having gone crazy with the adulation? Why didn't he turn into a boor or a prima donna? Or give the crowd the finger when they booed or heckled him, which they did? Or give up the hardship of Test cricket and coast, like he could have done, in ODIs? Stats cannot measure drive or ambition. Nor indeed its benefits or hindrances.

For the moment, though, a favourite memory of Tendulkar in ODI cricket. It is not the teenager whose cherubic cheeks bulged from under the helmet visor and who wielded his chunky bat like a razor-blade in a knife- fight. Or the "desert storm" of 1998, or the upper cut of Centurion, or even the speck in a sea of specks rushing down the steps at the far end of the Wankhede Stadium.

It lasted all of a few, fleeting minutes, in Jaipur. This was the match before the Gwalior 200 not out, the first of three 2010 ODIs against South Africa, who needed seven to win with two balls left. On the penultimate ball, Charl Langeveldt pulled one that travelled at speed past short fine leg. Tendulkar, on the boundary, ran full tilt towards the ball and flung himself, diving and sliding along the ground like he was 16, to get his hands on the ball. The batsmen had taken three and Tendulkar saved a single. India won that match by one run.

"Conclusion of a sterling ODI career from a wonderful batsman. Congrats Sachin Tendulkar."
South Africa batsman Hashim Amla, via Twitter

"Masters.423 matches, 23 yrs, 18426 runs !!!! These numbers no body else will be able to come close to.salute salute salute to Sachin."
India offspinner Harbhajan Singh, via Twitter

"I think he has obliged Indian cricket by retiring. The god has ultimately decided. Everybody is talking that he should retire. I suppose if I am playing cricket whether I am playing good or bad, the call has to be taken by the selectors."
Former Indian batsman Kirti Azad

"He is the best man to decide when to retire from other formats because he knows his body well. All this time people were asking when is he retiring? Now that he has announced his retirement from ODIs, people are asking why has he retired? I don't understand the Indian people."
Former India allrounder Bapu Nadkarni

''When you've played 23 years of international cricket, a time comes when ODIs don't excite you anymore as you have achieved everything that you possibly could have. Sachin has also won the World Cup, therefore his decision is understandable.''
Former Pakistan captain and commentator Rameez Raza

"Sachin is a cricketing God. Unbelievable what he's done for Indian cricket."
Former England batsman Paul Collingwood, via Twitter

"The great man @sachin_rt calling it a day in #ODI, what a great player he has been #differentgravy!! Such a grt man as well u will b missed."
Former England fast bowler Alex Tudor, via Twitter

"The legend's retirement will be a void felt not only in Indian cricket but World cricket."
Indian seamer RP Singh, via Twitter

Fans on TENDULKAR’s Retirement:

Bye Bye,, No More ODI's....,
Sachin quits one-dayers..
We Stop Watching it, only Places to Enjoy the Beauty of God & Cricket is in Tests and IPL.No One can replace him.The game cricket will loose its shine for a long time without Sachin.One-day doesn't have the same Charm without Sachin.He has obliged Indian cricket by retiring.Conclusion of a sterling ODI career from a wonderful batsman.
SACHIN TENDULKAR – THE MAESTRO OF ODI CRICKET

SACHIN!!!
Without you,ODIs are not the same anyday!!! The very existence of yours in the squad is a huge strength... B it anyday...b it a day of ur century or b it a day whn u go out on a duck, u r needed on the field!! Your presence itself makes a lot of difference and will bring us to watch the match!!!
I would say...gonna miss that cricket which is A CLASS APART!!! Here we salute for all u did to Indian cricket!!! Take a bow