NEW DELHI — Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar admitted yesterday that he is contemplating retirement and said he would reassess his future next month.
Report by Reuters In an interview to be broadcast on Indian television yesterday, the 39-year-old said he would decide on a “series by series” basis as he acknowledged that the clock was running down on his record-breaking career. “I am 39 and I don’t think I have plenty of cricket left in me,” he told The Times Now station. Asked if he has been thinking of retirement, he replied: “Of course, I have been. “I am 39 plus and it is not abnormal for me to think of it. At that moment, I will go by what my heart says. At this moment, my heart says I am okay. But you will have to look at series by series.” Any talk of dropping Tendulkar — the highest run-scorer in Tests and the first player to score 100 international centuries —had been taboo in India. But some commentators said last month it was time for him to hang up his bat after he made a series of low scores against New Zealand in a home Test series. Tendulkar has scored a record 51 Test centuries, but he has now gone 25 innings without a hundred in the five-day format since making 146 against South Africa in Cape Town in January, 2011.