Anniversary issue

One year after he hit No.99,Tendulkar still searching for the elusive landmark 100

At a time when retirement talk is rife,an attention-seeking news flash the previous day about Sachin Tendulkars decision to quit One Day Internationals turned out to be water-cooler talk as the man himself went through a rigorous practice session at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium on Sunday.

Tendulkar had briefly entertained thoughts of issuing a clarification,but changed his mind to focus instead on the match on Tuesday. The rumour-mongering nevertheless adds further pressure on Tendulkar who is already weighed down by the burden of an impending milestone.

Monday,interestingly,will mark one year to the day since the soon-to-be-39-year-old batsman scored his last international century No.99,111 against South Africa in Nagpur during the World Cup. In Bangladesh,he will get at least three outings to reach what has turned into an excruciatingly elusive three-figure mark.

As he padded up for the nets,his most ardent worshipper,the tricolour-painted Sudhir Kumar Gautam,was evicted from the Sher-e-Bangla stadium. Having cycled for seven days from Damodarpur in Bihar,Sudhir had slipped into the stadium on his bicycle on Saturday,and had spent the night under a concrete parapet.

Sudhir later said he had performed a puja at a temple in Muzaffarpur to influence the Gods above to grant his cricketing God the landmark century. While he couldnt meet Tendulkar on Sunday,Sudhir will return on the eve of Indias game against Bangladesh to try and recite a mantra for success of the batsman who,in this last one year,had missed the mark on a number of occasions. Most notably in November last year.

Near misses

Playing against West Indies,Tendulkar was just six runs away from No.52 in Tests,but that attempt ended when he opened the face of the bat to a Ravi Rampaul delivery,only to watch the catch being taken at second slip by Darren Sammy.

Similar stories have occurred in London 91,Delhi 76,Melbourne 73,Sydney 80. While all other near misses were in Tests,the closest he came to scoring a century since Nagpur was in the World Cup itself when he made a scratchy but match-winning 85 against Pakistan in the semi-final. That knock in Mohali was his last half-century in the 50-over format,and his highest score since is 48 against Sri Lanka in Perth during the CB Series.

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The dip in his limited-overs form has ignited a debate over whether he should have hung up his ODI boots after the World Cup.

Tendulkars participation in the Asia Cup immediately after a three-month long tour of Australia,is being widely viewed as an attempt by senior batsman to give himself every chance of getting the ton out of the way before taking a call on his ODI future. Tendulkars only ODI century in Bangladesh was a 141 against Australia at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka during the quarterfinal of the Wills International Cup in 1998.

On the eve of what will be a one-year itch,Tendulkar went about his preparation methodically two net sessions,the first against the India bowlers and the second against throwdowns from the support staff. Hes heard about the stories doing the rounds of his possible retirement from ODIs. For now,however,his attention is firmly fixed on his Asia Cup engagements.