It's all getting rather embarrassing now. Whether he gets it or not, this tedious saga will in later years come to be seen as the nadir of this odd Indian obsession with meaningless personal milestones.
The reductio ad absurdum of this all was clearly seen last sumer when Nasser Hussain opined that it would have been a shame if Tendulkar had got a century in the last Test of the England series, as it would probably have overshadowed the awful performance of the tourists and deflected them from carrying through the tough changes that were obviously long overdue.
Instead of seeing the sense in this quite honest assessment I remember that many respected Indian commentators reacted with howls of anguish and outrage: Nasser had committed an act of lese-majeste far worse than referring to the Indian 'seniors' as "donkeys" in the field. For some people it seems, cricket is hardly a team game at all.
I wonder whether the BBC will be celebrating Sachin's 60th as they are Sir Viv's when the time comes? Smokey blasted all comers to all parts for his team, and his personal statistics are rather modest by comparison to the Indian's. Yet whose actual achievements will be remembered with greater awe in the long run? My money is on the West Indian's. it was his very eschewal of personal milestones and love of the game, of gaining the psychological edge over the very best bowlers in the world such that his team would ultimately benefit, which ensures pretty much anyone who ever watched him play would agree they have never seen domination like it and would be ever willing to celebrate his greatness ungrudgingly and without caveats.
I honestly don't think the same can be said of Tendulkar. He has accumulated very well, but for me Dravid has been the big wicket in the Indian team and the mainstay of India's batting for most of the time they have batted together, and it is Dravid's (and to a lesser extent Laxman's) feats in the great Test matches that have been played in their time together that will be more fondly remembered, no matter how many centuries Tendulkar eventually racks up.
And if the latter carries on much longer with the tedious pursuit of this milestone - which in any case needs an asterix for those who do not realize that it includes centuries against the likes of Kenya and Namibia - he will tarnish our memories of what he has achieved in the game and ensure that he is remembered as a guy who, unlike IVA Richards, basically played for personal records and not for his team.