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"It's not been an easy decision. I have pondering over my retirement for the last one year. Somehow, I couldn't pen my resignation letter for the last one year. But having turned 38 yesterday (Thursday), I have decided it is the right time for me," an emotional Badrinath, accompanied by best friend & former Tamil Nadu teammate L Balaji and his father, said at a press conference here on Friday.
In the end, he finishes with 10,245 runs in 145 First-Class matches at an average of 54.49 with 32 hundreds. While most of those runs came for TN, he also represented Vidarbha for two seasons and played for Hyderabad in the 2016/17 season in what turned out to be his last in domestic cricket.
He also played two Tests, seven ODIs and a lone T20I for India and reminisced about the time when he received his Test cap from none other than Sachin Tendulkar. "My Test debut was against South Africa in Nagpur in 2010. The moment when I received my Test cap (262) from Tendulkar will remain very special for me," he said.
While there were plenty of highs in Badrinath's career, the fact that he never won the Ranji Trophy and couldn't stamp his authority in international cricket could be viewed as disappointments. Badrinath, however, said that he was going out without any regrets.
"To be honest, I don't have any regrets in my career. Whenever I played for TN, I wore my heart on my sleeve and gave my 100%. I tried my best both individually and from the team perspective. But that's the way it happened. Perhaps, the 2003-04 Ranji final when we played against Mumbai was our best chance since we were playing at Chepauk. We won the toss too and elected to bat first. But when you are playing a side like Mumbai, you have to bat them out in the first innings which we didn't," he assessed.
As far as his India career is concerned, Badrinath hinted that he perhaps should have been given more time to adapt to the challenges of Test cricket in particular. "I couldn't have done anything different. As a batsman, only playing Test cricket can make you better. You won't get to face bowlers of the quality of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and James Anderson in domestic cricket. It's important that you get a decent run in Test cricket. You will know what you have to work on and how to better yourself only then. Unless you are a born genius like Sachin Tendulkar, you can't immediately adapt to Test cricket. I don't see anyone, including Virat Kohli, who has immediately adapted to Tests," he said.
Asked whether he is interested in taking up a coaching role with TN and lending his vast experience to the current team, he said: "As of now, I have taken up a broadcasting role with Star Sports. That keeps me busy. I have just finished my playing career. So I want to spend more time with my family. Being a first-class coach is a long-term job. It takes up 5-6 months in a year. In the immediate future, I am not looking at that. I am not ruling out anything in the long-term."
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