Sachin Tendulkar has couple of years of cricket left in him: Lara

Sachin Tendulkar's failure in the recent series against New Zealand may have triggered a debate on whether he should retire now but West Indian batting great Brian Lara reckons the Indian batsman still has a "year or two" of cricket left in him.

"I know he has already exited from the Twenty20 version of the game, I am not sure if he is still playing the 50 over game but may be another year or two in the Test cricket left in him ... may be still define himself at the top of scoring the most runs in both the Test and One Day Internationals," Lara said.

The former West Indies captain, who started his international career a year after his Indian contemporary, said that Tendulkar has been phenomenal and would be missed by the cricket world whenever he decides to hang his boots.

"I think he (Tendulkar) has done a wonderful job. Somebody who started playing cricket, I am not sure whether he was 15 or 16, and he is still there. So he started may be a year or two before myself and has gone on to play five years after I have done", he told 'Headlines Today'.

"I think he is approaching 25 years of international cricket, that is something all Indians should be proud of, not just Sachin," the veteran of 131 Test matches said.

Lara, who has 11,953 Test runs to his credit including a record unbeaten 400 against England, added that Tendulkar is way apart in class and ability.

"We know he had a few injuries and to be able to play that length of time and stay at the top of the pile in runs, in just class and sheer ability, I think he has done a tremendous job and world cricket is gonna miss someone like that when he leaves," he said.

... contd.

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