I haven’t thought of retirement: Tendulkar

LONDON—Sachin Tendulkar has dismissed speculation about his retirement from one-day cricket, saying he was “batting brilliantly” at the moment and the thought of quitting had not even crossed his mind.
“The thought of retirement has not crossed my mind,” Tendulkar told PTI. “I am still enjoying the game very much and want to play for as long as I can. Cricket means a lot to me.”
Tendulkar’s clarification sought to end speculation over his retiring from one-day cricket after India’s home engagements against Pakistan and Australia later this season. Cricinfo had reported, quoting sources close to Tendulkar, that he was inclined to announce his retirement on this tour of England but had been persuaded by friends to do so at home.
Tendulkar, along with Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, had opted out of the ICC World Twenty20 and he had told The Times of the toll one-day cricket was taking on his body. “I enjoy every moment I have on a cricket field, but the recovery times between games these days are difficult, especially for one-day internationals, and that’s my major obstacle,” he said. “It does take its toll on the body. When you are 22 or 23, you recover a lot more quickly. But at 34, it’s not so easy.”
Tendulkar has been in excellent one-day form on the tour of the United Kingdom so far. In ten innings, he has plundered 548 runs, with four 90s, at a strike rate of 84.3. The tour also reunited him with his opening partner Sourav Ganguly, and the pair, the most prolific in the history of one-day cricket, added four more century partnerships to take their tally to 25, 16 of them for the first wicket.Tendulkar had, along with Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, opted out of the forthcoming World Twenty20 in South Africa. Earlier this week, he told the Times of the toll one-day cricket was taking on his body. “I enjoy every moment I have on a cricket field, but the recovery times between games these days are difficult, especially for one-day internationals, and that’s my major obstacle,” he said. “It does take its toll on the body. When you are 22 or 23, you recover a lot more quickly. But at 34, it’s not so easy.”
His innings at The Oval on Wednesday provided evidence of that; the last few minutes saw him hobbling with cramps, barely able to run the singles and, after his dismissal, taking a long time to climb the stairs to the dressing room.
Most of that innings, though, was spent in the kind of form he has displayed through this tour, one on which he showed he’d lost little of his formidability in one-day cricket. He began with two 90s against South Africa in Ireland, helping India win the series from being one down.

—Agencies