Friday, 30th March 2007 at 5:08 pm

End of the road for Sachin Tendulkar?

India’s early demise at the World Cup has thrown a cricket-mad nation into utter chaos - in a country where the game is more than religion, this is an apocalypse that has stunned a nation. The repercussions will unfold in the coming weeks, with the futures of Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid under scrutiny; if you read Ian Chappell on Cricinfo, however, it’s another player for whom the future is most uncertain.

The thought of an Indian team without Sachin Tendulkar is cricketing sacrilege, but Chappell’s suggestion that the Indian demi-god should seriously consider quitting does make for a debate that will be raging around India. The effortless touch and easy majesty of a young Tendulkar has been replaced by an older, less authorative figure who now appears to find batting a genuine challenge. Tendulkar human? Who would have thought.

A number of players will be bidding cricket farewell at the end of the tournament - Glenn McGrath is the most high-profile, and Inzy and Anil Kumble have already quit the one-day game, but Jayasuriya, Lara, Pollock, Vaughan, Ganguly and Vaas will be amongst others considering whether they’ve still got the motivation to carry on. Tendulkar quitting would be something else entirely, however - and given that Ian Chappell’s brother is India’s coach (for now, at any rate), there might just be something to his suggestion.