Sachin Tendulkar's inability to win matches for India a blot on his career, is this a fair enough question?

First one has to redefine what exactly is cricket. Cricket is a team event, not a single-player event. And it is not just a game for batsmen alone.

Blaming a player for all the faults of the team is not fair. If a players falters, the other players has to make up for it. That's what exactly a team stands for He has been the mainstay for more than 20 years and shouldered the pressure and took cricket to new heights & popularity in the country, and still the fans, followers and teammates put pressure on him to score, blame him every time the team fails, and put his every move under the scanner, not just on the field, off the field too.

People just want to malign him, some seek attention by dragging his name into controversies. Most of the these lamebrain critics were not even present in the form of gametes when he started his career as a sixteen years old. Nor have they done any worthwhile sacrifice like he has done for the game.

And all these fries who sit in the luxury of their living rooms and watch cricket on television and comment on the nuances of the game has not earned the right to criticize him. All they know is that cricket is a popular game and the only sport India could be a world-beater. They haven't seen the times when India was just an also-ran, losing more matches than they could win, and most of their wins came at home.

If India has rose to this position, we owe a lot to Tendulkar. Not just by his performance, he has been inspirational for youngsters to take up cricket. So, let the critics shove the numbers up wherever they want, and let him go out on his own terms with all the respect that he has earned over last 23 years.

I would personally want him to retire. Not because of his recent performances, but that will teach his detractors what exactly he means for the team. And he won't be blamed for all the blunders of a team that has been treading the path that will take them to the foot of the hill.

And I won't be surprised if the same critics blaming Tendulkar now for 'not retiring' will blame him then for retiring 'too early' or 'when the team needed him the most'.

Its easy to criticize & people forget the contributions he has made. This is the 1st time I have seen him continuously failing, else he makes a comeback of sorts, every time. He is bound to retire, maybe after this series or after series with Pakistan & Australia but its getting tough for him to continue on his previous records.

He has to make a bigger, telling contributions in this series. I have seen supporters of other teams targeting Tendulkar but he has managed to get support from his own. Yet it doesn't mean, like Ponting gets criticized by his fellow countrymen, he is above his fans.

Now the time has come to make him realize, if not complete retirement, he might see a 1st in his life, when he will be dropped from the team, first up and then he will either decide to retire or ask for a last chance. But as his supporter & looking at how the team is failing, its rough to target him alone. He used to be the fulcrum, around whom the team moved, he is no more that central a figure, so let him continue for little more time, with few breaks here & there, to groom Rohit Sharma kinds for Tests, by the time he is ready to retire..

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.