Sachin Tendulkar has hit back strongly at his detractors. Ever since India's forgettable tour of Australia, a host of former cricketers have called for Tendulkar to give up ODIs. Some even suggested the batsman should have quit after last year's World Cup victory.
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"My critics haven't taught me my cricket," Tendulkar told Open Magazine. The day he feels "a little less passion" while walking out to bat for India, "I will give up the game", Tendulkar said, adding, "critics didn't need to tell me to do so."
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Tendulkar said he had nothing better to do than playing for India. "I still get goosebumps as I stand with my teammates when the national anthem is on. I still feel the same passion when I pick up my bat and go out. They (critics) can question but none of them have answers to their own questions.
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Master Talk: Sachin Tendulkar
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"None of them has been in my predicament and it is impossible for them to understand what I have been thinking and feeling," said Tendulkar, who scored his 100th international ton in the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh last week.
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Tendulkar conceded that scoring the hundredth century was the most difficult hurdle of his career. "There is no doubt it was. The 100th hundred was the most difficult to get. I really don't know why but it was.
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Maybe because it turned into a national obsession. Maybe because I wasn't able to escape talk of the 100th hundred and it was affecting me at a subconscious level. Maybe God was trying me harder," he said.
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Asked whether the thought of retiring from ODI cricket had crossed his mind after India won the World Cup last year, Tendulkar said such a thought had never occurred to him.
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"A number of my friends have also asked me why I didn't retire from ODI cricket after winning the World Cup, they may well be right. It would indeed have been a grand exit, emotions were running high and the timing could not have been better but to be honest such a thought never occurred to me," he said.
