PTI
New Delhi, Nov 8: Two of his celebrated peers, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly have decided to walk into the sunset after glorious careers but Sachin Tendulkar says his body is "doing fine" and he has no plans to retire in the immediate future.
"My body is doing fine and at the moment I am not thinking of any plans to retire. Normally I prefer to think of the present, not of what I am going to do in the next four, five of six years of my life," he said.
"If I think it is time to hang up I will let everybody know. There is nothing to hide in it. I know it will make news but that I don't think it is a negative news that I have to hide from everyone," he added.
Tendulkar was non-committal when asked if he was thinking of playing in the 2011 World Cup which will be held in the sub-continent.
"I normally prefer to think of which match I am going to play next and what sort of planning I should do and which bowling attack would be used on me.
"Even if I have to play in 2011 World Cup it is 700 days to go. For now my focus is on the next four days against Australia," he told a news channel.
Tendulkar, who hit his 40th Test hundred in Nagpur, said he will miss Sourav Ganguly with whom he shared a special understanding on the filed while batting.
"I will definitely miss him. It happened many a times with Sourav that when we were on the wicket and between the overs we used to know looking at each other's face that there is a lot a of stress and the situation is important or whether it is necessary to relax.
"When you go to play the next ball then it is important to have 100 per cent concentration. But when you do not need 100 per cent concentration it is important to relax. So at that time I use to try to speak to him in Bengali whether it was correct or not. So the atmosphere gets relaxed and we play our natural game," he said of his 12-year association with Ganguly.
Talking about the captains under whom he has played in the 19 years of his international career, Tendulkar said Rahul Dravid was different from a Ganguly or a Krishnamachari Srikkanth in that he was a serious sort who wants to maintain peace in the dressing room.
"Rahul is a serious sort of a player. He is focused and he likes to maintain peace in the dressing room. So he was a different captain. There is a Srikkanth who used to crack jokes and laugh and there is Rahul who is focused and serious.
"Srikkanth used to joke with me then (when I first played under him) and also when I became 35-year-old. When there is tension in the dressing room he would crack some jokes to try to make a relaxed atmosphere and prepare everyone for the game. He used to prepare in a different way.
"Like Srikkanth, Sourav also used to entertain teammates. He used to crack different jokes and try to ease off pressure."