KEY POINTS:
Those hoping for a final sighting of one of cricket's most celebrated batting quartets when India arrive in New Zealand in March are out of luck.
India's Fab Four won't be together for the trip, with Sourav Ganguly announcing the current Australian series will be his last.
But
the odds on the other three, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, all being on the plane are in serious doubt.
Lefthander Ganguly, at 36 the oldest of the four, got the pricker with the Indian selectors before the Australian series began, and vented his displeasure in a newspaper interview he subsequently claimed to be inaccurate.
In it, he claimed he had been made the scapegoat for India when others have performed poorly, "yet every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing in the team. There are some [players] who have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored for India," he was quoted as saying.
The four are all among India's eight biggest test runscorers. But now graceful exits, rather than graceful runs, are the talk in the wake of a poor tour of Sri Lanka, both for the four and the team. The Indian selectors have apparently been dropping hints it's time they started planning for their post-cricket years.
The elegant Laxman - best remembered for his stunning 281 against Australia in Kolkata seven years ago which turned that series on its head - is probably the most vulnerable. Yet he is the youngest of the four, at 33.
Dravid, nicknamed "The Wall" for his obduracy at the crease, is the fifth highest runmaker in tests. Tendulkar is the only Indian above him and is
15 runs short of overtaking Brian Lara as cricket's greatest scorer. His 39 hundreds are a world record, but injuries and the sheer toll of 19 years in the international game are wearing down a once magnificent batsman.
In the drawn first test against Australia, Dravid made a half century, the others 40 apiece. They could make those suggesting they move on look foolish in the next three tests but time doesn't wait. So it's when, not if, they depart.
The four have scored a combined 35,244 test runs, played 484 matches and been rocks during often turbulent times. Removing them as a job lot would be stupid. Tendulkar, certainly, and Dravid deserve to have their departures handled with respect.
India's wicketkeeper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, opined that the pressure is more from themselves owing to their own high expectations, but his words had a touch of the double-edged sword.
"I don't think you can really write them off, they have plenty in them," he said. "But at the same time you have to look into the future. It's all about transition. We definitely have players who are talented and can make it big."
Anil Kumble, India's durable legspinner and captain, is himself under the spotlight for similar reasons.
"In India it really doesn't matter whether you are 31 or 32," he said. "As soon as you cross 30, I think people start talking."
The fab four
* Sachin Tendulkar (age 35)
Tests: 151
Runs: 11,939 (average 54.02)
39 100s/49 50s
* Rahul Dravid (35)
Tests: 126
Runs: 10,302 (53.65)
25/53
* VVS Laxman (33)
Tests: 97
Runs: 6042 (43.78)
12/35
* Sourav Ganguly (36)
Tests: 110
Runs: 6961 (41.93)
15/34
