Criticism of Ashok Mitra's "An honorary century"

The veteran Indian economist and columnist, Ashok Mitra, wrote an opinion piece in today's The Telegraph, titled, "An honorary century". In his column (linked here) he, I think mercilessly criticized Sachin Tendulkar - the Indian cricketer, for not voluntarily retiring from test cricket (perhaps all forms of cricket).
I think this essay was uncalled for and rather rude. Sachin lately may not have scored his "elusive" hundredth hundred in Australia (or for that matter in some matches hosted in India and elsewhere as well), but let this not take away from our attention that he has been examples of outstanding batting under really difficult conditions, particularly in Australia as well as having faced some fierce attacks against other bowlers from other test playing countries while playing in India. He is not getting any younger; besides, a bowler can be quite motivated to bowl his best when knows he is going to bowl at Tendulkar.
Why should he made to retire now or why should he be dropped? It'd be inconsistent on part of the selectors to rest him based on his performance alone. After all, his scores in his latest outings were not all that low or awkward either. Not that everyone of his team-mates outplayed him. Besides, test cricket is as much a game of strategy as it is a game of individual performances, and presence of Tendulkar in the team serves as an inspiration for young cricketers in the team. Besides, Tendulkar is hardly blocking the way of a younger cricketer; in contrary, his presence in the team itself can be an inspiration for a youngster to do his best to play along side the master for the country.

As it shows, Tendulkar is surely fit enough to continue as long as he can, and as long as he has to show for it (hopefully his scores in the seventies and eighties are not trivial), one wonders why one would be judgemental, compare Tendulkar with dotard academics at Santiniketan ready to kick the bucket? The insinuations at how much money he made or how much he means fiscally for the BCCI are non sequitur. Sad to see a senior, widely respected intellectual such as Mitra should take such cheap pot shots at one of our cricketing geniuses.