Basking in his new-found glory as the highest Test run getter after breaking Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 runs, the batting great said he does not have anything to prove to anyone and nobody should tell him when to call it quits.

“I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I have been around for 19 years and all those 19 years I did not play to prove anything to anyone, not in my first year not in the 10th, 15th or 19th year,” a combative Tendulkar told a press conference after the opening day’s play against Australia.

“What I need to do is to contribute to whatever my team’s requirements are. I’m not here to answer what x,y, and z is writing about me or saying about me. People will say lot of things, not necessarily they are always correct. I don’t take thir opinions seriously,” he said.

“What happens in the dressing room is more imporant. The planning of the captain, coach, manager and other players are much more important. I just focus on that,” he said.

Tendulkar made it clear that though the clamour is growing for the retirement of the senior players in the side, he was in no mood to hang up his boots.

“I’m going to continue obviously, I’m feeling good. As I said, so many things are being said and written and not necessarily those are right. Those are only opinions”, he said.

“What I feel within is more important. People tend to give opinion about what’s going in my mind, so I don’t know how they can figure out what’s going in my mind, which is something even I can’t figure out at times,” Tendulkar quipped. “As long as I enjoy I’ll play. I don’t need x, y, z to tell me when I should stop or when I should continue. When I started, no one told me you should continue, so nobody needs to tell me now either,” he said.

Taking a dig at his critics, he said “people sometimes throw stones and you converted them into milestones.” The champion batsman, however, said becoming Test cricket’s highest run-getter was the biggest achievement of his career.

“It is definitely the biggest achievement in 19 years of my career. It can’t happen overnight. The journey has been fantastic with ups and downs. It was a process of success,” he said.

Tendulkar admitted not winning a World Cup rankles him but refused to commit to hang around for the 2011 World Cup.

“Of course this is something we came very close to win in 2003 but it was so near yet so far. For me, I now just want to go out and enjoy, not thinking about targets and goals. When it comes in the vicinity, I would focus my energy on that,” he said.

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Phew … Yesterday I was so engrossed watching the craziest tennis match ( Roger Federer vs Andy Roddick ), that I forgot to publish new posts Sorry fellows!

Roger Federer made history on Sunday when he defeated brave Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 16-14 to win a sixth Wimbledon title and claim a record 15th Grand Slam crown in a classic final.

But the Swiss second seed was given a huge fright by the American sixth seed who led by a set, had four set points in the second and didn’t drop serve until the final, heartbreaking game of the match.

In an extraordinary conclusion, the last set was the longest ever played in a men’s Wimbledon final.

Federer, 27, now has six Wimbledon titles, five US Opens, three Australian Opens and a French Open trophy, and has surpassed Pete Sampras’s mark of 14 majors.

He will also reclaim his world number one spot from Rafael Nadal, who beat him in a five-set final here last year, on Monday.

Sampras, and fellow greats Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg were on hand to watch Federer’s bid for history, as were Hollywood giants Woody Allen and Russell Crowe, such was the attraction of the Centre Court blockbuster.

Federer, in a record seventh straight Wimbledon final and 20th Grand Slam title match, saw Roddick save four break points in the 11th game of the opening set and he immediately paid a heavy price.

The Swiss went wide with a crosscourt drive, which put him set point down, and then repeated the error to hand the American the opener 7-5.

Roddick, whose only Grand Slam title came at the 2003 US Open, lost the 2004 and 2005 finals here to Federer, just two of his 18 defeats in 20 career meetings with the world number two.

But on Sunday he wisely adopted the same game plan he employed in his semi-final win over Britain’s Andy Murray, a powerful mix of trademark big groundstrokes punctuated by regular visits to the net.

Serve again dominated the second set before Roddick stretched to a 6/2 lead, and four set points, in the tiebreaker but Federer fought back and levelled the final when the American unleashed a wild backhand.

Roddick was now under siege, saving a break point in the sixth game of the third set before another tiebreaker was required.

Federer went to three set points, two of which Roddick saved, but the Swiss opened up a two sets to one lead when a Roddick service return fell comfortably into his hitting zone and he dispatched a fierce forehand winner.

Roddick, playing in his first Grand Slam final since the 2006 US Open, refused to surrender and broke Federer to lead 3-1 in the fourth set on his way to leveling the final.

Federer again failed to convert a break point in the second game of the decider before he was forced to fight off two on his own serve in the 17th game.

But eventually Roddick, always having to chase the game, wilted in the 30th game of the decider when he ballooned a weary forehand long.

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