Mumbai. Fed up with constant hounding by Indian media, Sachin Tendulkar has now decided to retire from Book Cricket as well. He has further declared the day and date on which he will play his last game.
It all started after a close friend of Sachin disclosed to some media persons that Sachin regularly played Book Cricket with his son Arjun. Little did the friend knew that he had opened the Pandora’s box for Sachin. Almost seconds after that disclosure, Tendulkar was inundated with calls from media houses asking him to reveal when he wished to play his last match in this format of the game.
Sources say that Sachin became so irritated with media’s persistent pestering that he officially announced his retirement from Book Cricket to get over with all the frenzy surrounding his career, though unofficially he may continue to play the game.
Media and cricket experts and not surprised with the latest developments.
“A whole industry has come up around Sachin doing things for the last time before retirement. Some journalists were even seen asking Sachin if the cards that he plays during Diwali would be his last or not. In fact, yesterday there was a huge media outrage when authorities failed to felicitate or give a grand farewell to master blaster who played his last gully cricket match against Bandra che Mulghe XI on Perry cross road right outside his bungalow,” an expert revealed.
However senior mediapersons have denied these allegations and called them baseless.
“Now that he has decided to hang up his boots in Book Cricket, our sole intention is to make sure that his last game in this format is as lucrative memorable for us everybody as all other formats,” Bora Mazedar, a senior official from a leading news channel told Faking News.
Sources confirm that preparations for the last book cricket game that Sachin will play are in full swing. Various publishing houses are lobbying hard over the venue book on which the legend will play his last match. BCCI could soon organize an auction to settle this issue.
Talks are on with few gifted weightlifters cricketers like Yusuf Pathan to be a part of the much hyped match so that after it is over, there is somebody to carry Sachin on his shoulders and give him a rousing farewell.
Negotiations are also on for the television rights of the match after many Sports channels showed interest. Here, BCCI feels they have the right over the revenues since anything and everything to do with cricket in India comes under their jurisdiction, even if it’s a personal match.
There are rumors that ex-cricketer and Sachin’s Mumbai teammate Vinod Kambli has already been approached by many news channels. Kambli has apparently told them how Sachin didn’t help him enough to save his Book Cricket career when Kambli was going through a rough patch.
Meanwhile, away from all this, search is also on to establish if Sachin plays Cricket 2013 on his laptop or PlayStation, and if he does, when does he intends to retire from this format of the game.