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Former Pakistani cricket captain Imran Khan Monday said Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar should have retired after India won the cricket World Cup last year.

"We all want to go with a big bang but you always don't get it right. For Sachin the ultimate time to go was after that World Cup win. He had such a great World Cup. He is a great player," said Imran, who has come here to attend a book fair.

The only world cup winning captain of Pakistan feels that Sachin himself has to decide the time of retiring and the timing must be right.

"He has to decide for himself and the timing must be right. You don't want to go after losing to Australia for 4-0. If he had gone after that world cup, that would have been the ultimate high," Imran said.

Imran feels whether Tendulkar gets his 100th ton or not won't make much difference because statistics don't matter for a great player.

"You should not be playing to break records. Records should be part of the win. Sachin is a great player…records are after all statistics and statistics do not matter to great players," Imran said.