Ever since Sachin  first played for India in 1989, Sachin has been India's best ever sportsman and best cricketer in the world during this period. There have been the Steve Waughs' & Laras who have reitred,  and among current players Ponting  & Dravid and Sehwags and Yurraj's as his successors,  but Sachin has always had that something extra in him which made him the best player of his generation.  Sachin has been a model role not only in our country but all across the over world for various categories of people ranging from a student to a ordinary clerk, from a labourer  to a industrialist.  He is a role model to youngsters as well as people much older than him.  Not only is he a role model for aspiring cricketers and young cricketers for any team in the world,  he is also a role models for cricketers of his generation of all teams. Infact sportsmen in India, who represent games other than cricket like Narain Karthikeyan & Sania Mirza also look to Sachin as a role model.

Indian team today boasts of some of the best Test players in world in Dravid & Sehwag.  In one dayers we have Yuvraj and Dhoni who are among the best in the world.  Once Sachin retires, Sehwag could take over Sachin's place as India's premier batsman in Test and Yuvraj could take his place in one dayers, but the fact remains that even after 20 years, Sachin remain's India's most valuable player in any form of the game.

The bitter  truth however is Sachin has to retire one day.  He is still at the top of his game in both forms of the game, and still can easily fit into any team in the world as the first choice batsman.  Anybody has to retire one day, an employee retires at around 60, cricketers around 40.   Except politicians everybody retire one day.  A day may come when Sachin may not find motivation in playing cricket or his body may not allow him and he decides to retire. He may even retire just for the sake of retirement as he cannot play on indefinitely.

India is a land of many celebrities like film stars & cricketers and however big they may have been , we Indians were mentally prepared for their retirement,   but in  Sachin's case are we mentally prepared to hear Sachin's retirement news?  To be hoenst I cannot even think of that day, when Sachin calls it a day, because he is one whom we treat him as one of us, as a part of our lives.

Sachin would retire one day and become a commentator or a selector to remain in touch with the game, but we will forever miss the Sachin the player once he quits.

Regards

Satish