Sachin Tendulkar should reconsider his ODI career: Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly, former India captain, has asked Sachin Tendulkar to think about his career in the shorter format of the game and decide if "he's still good enough to play in the ODIs".

Speaking to a news channel, Ganguly said: "Sachin has to ask himself whether he is good enough to play one-day cricket day in and day out; whether it's helping him missing tournaments and playing a one-day series after 8-9 months; whether it's helping him as a one-day player or if it's helping Indian cricket as a one-day team. If Sachin can't get an answer to these questions, he has to go." (Also Read: Rift in Team India? Sehwag takes a dig at Dhoni)

Ganguly also added that Sachin needed to ask himself whether he can play in 2015 World Cup. The senior batsman has scored only 90 runs in five ODIs so far in the ongoing tri-series in Australia.

Ganguly also felt that Tendulkar's decision to pick and choose ODI tournaments is affecting the team's rhythm. "It affects everyone's form if Tendulkar keeps coming in and going out of one-day tournaments. He needs to ask himself if he can go on like this; if he is fit enough to play ODIs regularly. If he cannot answer these questions, he should go out of one-day cricket and just play in Tests."

However, Ganguly felt that it was Tendulkar's prerogative to decide on his retirement date.

"I think Sachin Tendulkar deserves to decide on his own if and when to leave international cricket or one-day cricket. Nobody has contributed more to Indian cricket than Tendulkar. I don't think the selectors have got the right to ask him to go," he said.

A few days ago, former India skipper Kapil Dev had said that Tendulkar should have retired after the World Cup. The debate became more heated when Tendulkar's poor outing in the CB Series coincided with Ricky Ponting's ODI exit and questions were raised if Tendulkar should follow suit. (Watch: Should Sachin follow Ponting's example?)

NDTV cricket expert Sunil Gavaskar said if the selectors believed if Tendulkar didn't have a future in the team, they should tell him. "May be if the selection committee feels that Sachin Tendulkar didn't have a future in the Indian one-day team, they should take him aside and speak with him. They should allow him to call it a day."

Reacting to Ganguly's comment that none of the selectors will have the guts to go upto Tendulkar and tell him to leave, Gavaskar said: "No, I think Srikkanth can do it. He was Tendulkar's first captain. Tendulkar made his debut under him and today Srikkanth is the chairman of selectors. If his team of selection committee feels Sachin has no one-day future, then Srikkanth is just the right man to tell that to Sachin."