Steve Waugh: Sachin Tendulkar scripted his farewell perfectly

When does one let go? When does a sportsman realise that enough has been achieved? When does he know that there is no real point in waiting for that one last masterpiece, because his legend and legacy will not be significantly enriched by it? The art of leaving is a difficult one to master but Sachin Tendulkar could not have scripted it better — a farewell match at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, a few minutes away from where he started his remarkable cricket journey. As someone who had a similar sign-off, in front of my home crowd, I can tell you it’s a very special feeling.

It’s common to speak of the eye not being as sharp and the reflexes slowing down. I felt fitter towards the end of my career thanks to modern sporting science and medicine. Chances are this is true for Tendulkar as well because he, too, benefited from similar inputs from the fitness team. Who knows, he might actually be feeling that he has another season of international cricket left in him? It’s the mind and motivation that are the big challenges.

After reaching many milestones and ticking innumerable boxes, it’s hard to keep waking up, training and geeing yourself up game after game. Right now, Tendulkar has the perfect motivation in the form of a 200th Test and I am sure that he will try his best not to let down the mammoth expectations that rest on this game. After all, he is used to that kind of thing, and in some ways enjoys it. However, when he walked out of Wankhede on the last day of the Test on Thursday, he will have had some sense of relief with the weight of expectations that he has carried for all of his adult life finally being taken off his shoulders.

Post November 18, there will be some anxiety in his mind about what he will do here on, after all, he is only 40. Tendulkar has been so single-minded about his cricket that it’s hard to imagine him doing something too far from the game. He has often spoken about other sports and changing India’s one-sport culture, so perhaps he could direct his focus towards promoting other sports. I can see him in a mentoring role as part of an Olympic team, where he would be a tremendous source of inspiration for young athletes. I also hope that now that he has the time to watch his children grow up, he will be the family man for a bit.

There are many who might feel that Tendulkar should have retired after India won the World Cup in 2011, at the Wankhede. However, he leaves the Test team in better health two-and-a-half years later. There are young players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan who are looking like the core of a very good batting line-up.

In the final analysis, few players get the chance to script their own farewell and Tendulkar deservedly is one of them. The true testimony to his greatness was his popularity across countries and the messages that are pouring in from everywhere. When Tendulkar walks away from the Wankhede pitch, a whole generation of Indians would feel that they have aged a little. That’s the hypnotic hold this man had on 1.2 billion people.

- Gameplan