Ian Chappell asks Tendulkar to hang up his boots

Mumbai, Mar 29 (UNI) Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has asked India's batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar to hang up his boots before someone is forced to axe him from the Indian team.

Ian Chappell, brother of Indian coach Greg, writing in his column for Mid-Day newspaper, said, ''At the moment, he looks like a player trying to eke out a career, built on a glittering array of statistics.'' ''If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India, then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately,'' Chappell said.

''Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar, the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game.'' The 33-year-old cricket idol holds a host of records in both forms of the game, but has been a shadow of his former self in recent times.

At the ongoing World Cup in the Caribbean, where India tumbled out in the first, Tendulkar scored seven and a duck against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively while notching up a half century against Bermuda.

Comparing Tendulkar with Brian Lara, Chappell said the West Indian left-hander had not changed his style over 17 years while the Indian maestro has struggled in the last three or four years and hence the two batsmen are ''worlds apart now''.

''When you think that for a decade Lara and Tendulkar went head-to-head in a wonderful battle of strokeplay to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness,'' he said.

''Lara's quick-footed tip toe through a terrific innings against a good Australian bowling attack when the rest of the West Indies top order succumbed easily was in direct contrast to Tendulkar's stumbling effort in the crucial Sri Lanka match.'' Chappell, however, conceded that Tendulkar was unlucky to have suffered injuries while Lara was largely unaffected by it.

''Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara; the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps.

''For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.

''If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question: 'Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsmen of all?' It would've answered: 'Brian Charles Lara'.

''If he asked that same mirror right now: 'Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?' The answer would be: 'Yes,''' Chappell wrote in his column.

UNI