Sachin Tendulkar has revealed that the first thoughts of retiring from international cricket came to his mind in October 2013 during a Champions League Twenty20 match here, just a month before he decided to call it quits.
Tendulkar has recently joined professional networking site ‘LinkedIn’ as an ‘Influencer’, and in a write-up titled ‘My Second Innings’ posted on Thursday, he shared his experience.
“It was October 2013 during one of the Champions League games in Delhi. My mornings would start with a gym workout, a routine I had been following for 24 years. But that morning in October, something had changed,” he wrote.
Realisation
“I realised that I had to force myself to wake up and go about my day. I knew that the gym training was a critical part of my cricket — something that had been my life for 24 years.
“Yet, there was reluctance. Why?
“Were these signs... signs that I should stop? Signs that the game that has been so dear to me, would no longer be a part of my daily routine?” the legendary cricketer, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, wrote.
Writing about the process of making the retirement decision, he wrote, “Sunil Gavaskar, one of my heroes and a former cricketer, once said that he made up his mind to quit the game when he found himself checking the clock, to see how much time there was left for the lunch and tea intervals.
“Suddenly I knew exactly what he meant. My mind and my body were telling me the same thing. Maybe, it’s time to hang up my boots.” PTI
