Batting great Sachin Tendulkar turned 39 on Tuesday with an impassioned plea from his childhood coach to carry on playing cricket for India since he is &quot;far from finished&quot;. &quot;All those murmurs about his retirement must stop, this is not the right time to go,&quot; said Ramakant Achrekar, 80, the man credited with the early training of the leading scorer in Test history. &quot;He must not retire now. He must go on playing and scoring runs for the country,&quot; the celebrated coach told the Hindustan Times. <img alt="Tendulkar" src="/imagedata/2012/apr/24sachin.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 341px; " /> Sachin Tendulkar Tendulkar made his international debut in 1989 and has played more Tests (188) and one-day internationals (463) than any other player. He is the highest run-getter in both forms of the game and last month became the first batsman to complete 100 international centuries -- 51 in Tests and 49 in one-dayers. But Tendulkar took more than a year to move from 99 to 100 hundreds -- against Bangladesh during the Asia Cup in Dhaka -- and many fans started to believe he needed to rethink his career, especially in one-dayers. The Mumbai batsman has himself dismissed talk of retirement, saying it would be &quot;selfish&quot; for him to quit when he still had a lot to offer Indian cricket. Achrekar predicted Tendulkar, currently playing in the Indian Premier League, would return to his best now that the 100th century was out of the way. &quot;I can see that his form is picking up and it is only a matter of time before we see him score those magnificent runs again,&quot; he said. &quot;Now that he has got his 100th century, he will play freely. <img alt="Ramakant-Achrekar" src="/imagedata/2012/apr/Ramakant-Achrekar.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 435px; " /> Ramakant Achrekaru00a0 &quot;My Sachin is going to play better than ever. He is far from finished... those who even bring up talk of his retirement are wrong.&quot; Achrekar said Tendulkar would help India bounce back from two humiliating 4-0 Test series whitewashes by England and Australia in the past year. &quot;The India team has been going through a rough patch lately and I believe it is Sachin who will help them sail out of it,&quot; the coach said. &quot;He will score those crucial centuries to help the team do well once again.&quot; Achrekar, whose other wards included former India internationals Vinod Kambli, Praveen Amre and Ajit Agarkar, said it would be hard to find another cricketer like Tendulkar. &quot;Sachin is the best batsman the world has seen,&quot; he said. &quot;We may find another great, but I do not think we will ever get a player of his calibre. &quot;The day he retires, the loss will be irreplaceable. Not only will the country feel it, but the world of cricket will miss him.&quot;

Appanna credits Murali for his four-wicket haul

Sachin's childhood coach believes the batting icon shouldn't retire anytime soon.

Ramakant Achrekar urges Tendulkar to carry on

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Home / Sports / Cricket / Article / Ramakant Achrekar urges Tendulkar to carry on

Ramakant Achrekar urges Tendulkar to carry on

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