Mr./Ms. bidhan40 if quoting of individuals makes a player great I can copy and paste more quotations from Individuals or self-proclaimed Cricket critic praising Sachin. I guess if you search on google you will find 1000s time more comments praising Sachin than Lara and Ponting put together. But quotations don't make a player great but his on and off the field activities does. Sachin is No less great than Lara, Jaysurya or Ponting. Regarding his retirement, I guess every team will choose the best player they have and Sachin is still teh best player India has on and off their bench. So, I don't think he should retire and jeopordize the team. His record past and present suggest the same. He is still going to be in the team india till 2011 World cup. Any one wanna bet against it.