Sachin Tendular's retirement: End of an era

Sachin Tendular's retirement: End of an era - Part 2

25 December, 2012

I thought of continuing my last post with more facts about the achievements of Sachin Tendulkar. He is one of the most prolific batsmen world has ever seen. He is going to rule on our hearts forever.

SACHIN TENDULKAR is a living legend in the field of sport and there will be very few cricketers who will be revered like him. He is among a few players who have played any international sport for more than 20 years and this is an achievement on its own. You cannot play at international level if you are not performing consistently.

He played 194 tests and 463 ODI matches in a span of 23 years of international cricket. This in itself is no small achievement. None of the international cricketers was ever able to play so many cricket matches. He played cricket like a living legend throughout his life.

There may be certain bad patches during his journey of 23 years but his overall performance remains an eye opener for generations to come. He is one of the most prolific cricketers world has ever seen. Even Sir Don Bradman thought of him like that.

He started his career at the age of 16 years in 1989 against Pakistan, which boasted of best bowlers of the time. Though in his first innings he could not do much but in that very series he proved his mettle by scoring 57 runs from 193 balls in 4th innings of the match against a formidable attack led by Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir. He saved that match for India and showed the arrival of a new era in International cricket.

His records in the game of cricket look like a fiction story. He has scored 15645 runs in 320 innings of 194 tests with an average of more than 55 till now whereas his record in ODIs is also very attractive. He has scored 18426 runs in 452 innings of 463 ODI with an average of 44.8. Now he has retired from ODI cricket. Let us look at his few achievements in the field of cricket.

He has played maximum number of test matches

He is the only player who has played more than 450 ODIs

He has maximum runs against his name in test as well as ODI cricket

He has scored maximum centuries in tests and ODIs

He is only player who has scored 49 centuries in ODIs

He is only player who has scored 51 centuries in test cricket

He is the only player having 100 international centuries against his name.

He has won maximum number of Man of the match Awards in ODIs

He is the only player who has scored more than 2000 runs in World Cups

He is the first player who scored double century in ODIs

He has scored 7 times more than 1000 runs in ODI calendar year

The list of his achievements is very long and it is not easy to remember all those feats. Unbelievably, few ex-players were criticizing him too much for his dismal performance. With all humility, I would like to ask all those cricket players who were hell-bent on his retirement from cricket field: what were your reasons for asking for the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar?