India's selectors must earn their money
Sachin Tendulkar is perfectly entitled to want to continue playing but the final decision should not be his, says Dileep Premachandran, in the National .
Nikita Bastian
25-Feb-2013
Sachin Tendulkar is perfectly entitled to want to continue playing but the final decision should not be his, says Dileep Premachandran, in the National.
Sportsmen and women are seldom good arbiters of when they've reached the end of the line. Kapil Dev carried on two seasons too many in pursuit of a record, and stalled at least a couple of promising careers in the process. Javed Miandad went on till he was a parody of his old street-fighting self. They clearly believed that they had something left to give, even if the evidence from the field suggested otherwise.
It is in such situations that selectors must earn their money. It is often suggested in India that Tendulkar is too big a name to be dropped or asked to retire. That is nonsense. No one, no matter what their achievements, is bigger than a team and its future prospects.
Nikita Bastian is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo