Mumbai: Iconic former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar turned 42 today. It was just over 16 months ago that Tendulkar stepped out of cricket’s arc-lights by bidding adieu to the game. His emotional farewell at the Wankhede Stadium at the conclusion of the 2013 India-West Indies Test series is still fresh in his admirers’ mind.
Sachin Tendulkar is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest cricketers of all time and by many as the greatest batsman of all time. He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years.
He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, holds the record for most number of runs in both ODI and Test cricket, the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.
Though the batting maestro has ended his on-field journey, he continues to attract attention with his insights and comments about the game that he adorned for nearly a quarter century.
Tendulkar, whose autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’ was released to tremendous response in November last year, was the Brand Ambassador of the ICC World Cup held in the Antipodes in February-March.
Now a co-owner of Indian Super League football franchise Kerala Blasters, cricket’s most prolific run maker and compiler of a staggering 100 international hundreds will be in Mumbai on Friday to celebrate his birthday, a day before MI’s next home game against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium.
Saturday’s match has been earmarked for Reliance Foundation’s Education For All initiative and is expected to be watched by Tendulkar and 28,000 children for whom the game has been earmarked.
We went through your ‘Playing It My Way’ this year. For a lot of us, the heroes are your mother and father. They let you be. Trust some parents among us when we say we are scared to look past the safety net and let our 11-year-olds or teens spread their wings. So, instead of numbers, we choose to walk down memory lane with pictures. Have a fabulous 42nd maestro.
Bureau Report
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