New Delhi, Feb 21: Cricket legend and former Indian captain Kapil Dev believes Sachin Tendunkar has played his Innings and now he should hang up his boots immediately.
Like former Pakistan captain Imran Khan, Kapil also believes that Sachin should have retired from ODIs immediately after India's World cup victory on home soil in 2011.
"From what we have seen in the last three months, he (Sachin) should have announced his retirement after the World Cup or even earlier. It's important to know that every cricketer has his time. Having served India for 22-23 years, there surely is no greater cricketer than him. But he should have announced his decision to retire from the shorter format soon after the World Cup," Kapil was quoted as saying by Aaj Tak.
"May be his time has come. Every player has his time. He is 39-40 years now. Age is not on his side as it was earlier."
Kapil also blasted Dhoni for his alleged favoritism in the team. He castigated Dhoni for not giving the ball to Ravinder Jadeja in Brisbane which, according to him, was inexplicable and smacked of clear bias.
"If you are an Indian captain, you cannot be partial. I was surprised when Rudra Pratap Singh was drafted into the Test side in England. One must find out why all rounder Jadeja was not used as a bowler even for a single over in the ODI against Australia at Brisbane. Dhoni is a mature player. I am perturbed when he picks a player as an all-rounder and doesn't make him bowl at all. If anyone makes such mistakes, he can't survive for long. If Dhoni makes such mistakes repeatedly, he will have to pay the price," Kapil added.
Apart from Sachin, Kapil also advised Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to retire from test cricket so that youngsters are blooded for future challenges in international cricket.
"I think Dravid and Laxman have played their last Test. They could be given one last Test for a respectable exit, but certainly not at the cost of compromising the team's interests.
"There is no denying that the likes of Rahul, Sachin and Laxman have served the nation like few other cricketers. But they are no longer young, and if Indian cricket does not move forward from the Big Three, it will risk falling a generation back and struggle like West Indies and Australian teams have done in the past," he said.
The question is this - will the legends pay heed to what their illustrious senior is advising?
