Ponting’s retirement may spark exodus

Tendulkar marked as next in line for calling it a day.

Afp November 30, 2012

NEW DEHLI: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s decision to retire could be the start of an exodus of other batting greats, including Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis.

Ponting, who turns 38 next month, started his 168th and last Test against South Africa yesterday and Tendulkar, who is without a Test century since early last year and will be 40 in April, appears to be next in line to call it quits. Kallis, West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene are also in the autumn of their careers, despite showing terrific form of late. The five veterans make up half the all-time list of just 10 players to have amassed 10,000 runs or more.

“I am 39 and I don’t think I have plenty of cricket left in me,” said Tendulkar in a television interview in October. “It’s not abnormal for me to think of it. At this moment, my heart says I am okay. But you will have to look at series by series.”

Tendulkar has scored a record 51 Test centuries, but he has now gone 28 innings without a hundred in the five-day format since his 146 against South Africa in Cape Town in January 2011.

Kallis, Chanderpaul still in form

A string of injuries has left question marks over Kallis, with a hamstring strain preventing him from bowling for all but three overs of the last Test against Australia in Adelaide. However, the 37-year-old’s appetite for runs remains undiminished.

This year alone, Kallis has smashed 905 in eight Tests at an amazing average of 75.4. Most recently, he played through the pain barrier in the Adelaide Test to score 58 and 46 as South Africa held out for an improbable draw.

Chanderpaul continues to defy critics as he piles on the runs for the West Indies. The 38-year-old left-hander scored 987 runs in his last nine Tests at an average of 98.7. Meanwhile, Jayawardene continues to lead Sri Lanka with distinction in his second stint as captain, while Kumar Sangakkara was this year named the International Cricket Council’s player of the year.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2012.